Balenciaga finally responds to BDSM and child abuse ad backlash
The Balenciaga design firm has now come clean about their appalling commercial campaign that included children, BDSM plush teddy bears, and child abuse court judgements as props in the images.
They accepted responsibility for the failure, at least in part, but laid the blame for the campaign’s failure squarely at the feet of those in charge.
On Monday, they opened an Instagram post with the following: “We would like to address the controversies surrounding our recent ad campaigns. We strongly condemn child abuse; it was never our intent to include it in our narrative.”
“This was a wrong choice by Balenciaga, combined with our failure in assessing and validating images, the responsibility for this lies with Balenciaga alone.”
In addition, the publication condemns the use of Supreme Court case records that determine that child pornography is not protected by the First Amendment’s free speech guarantees.
“The second, separate campaign for spring 2023, which was meant to replicate a business office environment, included a photo from a page in the background from a Supreme Court ruling ‘United States v. Williams’ 2008 which confirms as illegal and not protected by freedom of speech the promotion of child pornography,” Balenciaga explained. “All the items included in this shooting were provided by third parties that confirmed in writing that these props were fake office documents.”
In a statement, Balenciaga blamed “reckless negligence” for the “inclusion of these unapproved documents,” and they also took the opportunity to stress how seriously they regard legal matters.
It was also publicised that the Spanish fashion business is demanding $25 million in damages from the production company North Six and the set designer Nicholas Des Jardins and his own company.
But they claimed that they alone bear “full accountability for our lack of oversight and control of the documents in the background.”
Eventually, they’ll start making smarter choices.”We are closely revising our organisation and collective ways of working,” Balenciaga claimed “We are reinforcing the structures around our creative processes and validation steps. We want to ensure that new controls mark a pivot and will prevent this from happening again.”