Balenciaga is under fire due to bizarre campaign
We are somewhat used to Balenciaga by now, right? From garbage bags being sold as designer bags to worn-out All Stars going for thousands of euros over the counters... Yes, Balenciaga makes rather questionable choices in fashion. The reason they are now under fire is much more shocking, bizarre, and intense and surprisingly has very little to do with fashion.
On their website website, there were still images yesterday, on November 21, of children with stuffed animals, photographed in a house. This is a campaign that was shot for the new items in their gift shop. A day later, all those images were removed from the site, and even their entire Instagram account is empty. What happened?
The photos were taken by photographer Gabriele Galimberti (the photos have now also been removed from his Instagram account), who became known for his series ‘Toy Stories’, in which he photographed various children in their homes. Balenciaga's new campaign was therefore based on this.
What immediately stood out were the stuffed animals the children were holding: teddy bears in bondage outfits like leather straps. Not exactly suitable clothing for children and according to many quite inappropriate. But unfortunately, that is not the worst of this campaign.
In the campaign, you also see what at first glance appears to be an innocent photo of a Balenciaga handbag lying on some papers. Nothing special, you would say, right? Until you zoom in.
When you zoom in on the paper where some text is visible, a few words immediately stand out: ‘Speech Coalition’, ‘sexual intercourse’, ‘pornography’, and ‘sex’. And remember: this is in a campaign where children are the face of it. That alone is already downright bizarre, but unfortunately, this is not the last shocking thing about this campaign.
The paper that is visible belongs to the document of Ashcroft vs. Free Speech Coalition, which was a lawsuit in 1966 regarding the prevention of child pornography. The Free Speech Coalition believed that only actual images of child pornography should be banned, but that, for example, texts or images that vaguely refer to it or another type of ‘art’ should be allowed (so animated images of child pornography should also be allowed). A rather controversial view on the distribution of child pornography, and personally, I find it incomprehensible.
Of course, it doesn't mean that Balenciaga stands behind this as a brand, but how on earth did this end up in their new campaign? Someone must have known about this, right? And certainly in combination with children posing while holding BDSM teddy bears... Incomprehensible what is happening here and how this could have come about.
The TikToker below explains it well again. Even more disappointing is that this news has absolutely reached Balenciaga, because after the first negative reactions to the presence of this text, they initially only adjusted that image. Everything has been taken offline, including all photos from their Instagram account, but still, no response has been heard from the brand.
A striking extra detail is that Balenciaga indicated in 2018 that they would never work with models under 18 again. That has clearly not succeeded.
Update: Balenciaga has since apologized via Instagram Stories for the images with bondage teddy bears. There has been no mention of the Free Speech Coalition so far.
@rachmcqueen1 “A study in what people collect and receive as gifts.” – Balenciaga. Balenciaga's new website images are disturbing! There is so much symbolism in these images and how they tie in to the rest of the website and we need answers! Kids, BDAM, fetish objects? What in the desensitization is this?! #balenciaga #childexploitationprevention #gabrielegalimberti #keringgroup @kimkardashian ♬ original sound – Rach McQueen 👑
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Image credits: Balenciaga & Gabriele Galimberti
