Balenciaga has issued an apology and condemned the abuse of children after they got dragged for sexualizing kids in their holiday campaign.
The luxury brand has pulled the campaign from all platforms, which featured children with sexualized teddy bears, who were wearing BDSM-inspired harnesses.
But, they didn’t stop there.
Another campaign photo for a purse featured documents on a desk that appeared to be an excerpt from the U.S. Supreme Court opinion on United States vs. Williams (2008), which upheld part of a federal child pornography law.
In a statement, released on their Instagram Story, Balenciaga apologized for offending people with the campaign and they vowed to take legal action against whoever slid that document into the promo for the purse.
We sincerely apologize for any offense our holiday campaign may have caused.
Our plush bear bags should not have been featured with children in this campaign.
We have immediately removed the campaign from all platforms.
We apologize for displaying unsettling documents in our campaign.
We take this matter very seriously and are taking legal action against the parties responsible for creating the set and including unapproved items for our Spring 23 campaign photoshoot.
We strongly condemn abuse of children in any form. We stand for children safety and well-being.
See the original apology posts below.
Here’s the thing…this apology reads like we are not smart enough to know how many people these campaigns and photos have to pass through for approval before they are released to the public.
Balenciaga didn’t think we’d care about those kids and the bears or notice the tomfoolery in those documents.
Regardless of the apology, Twitter is Ray Charles to the luxury brand after this stunt.
CJ Pearson tweeted:
Balenciaga severed their ties with @kanyewest due to a tweet.
See the original tweet below.
Read more Twitter reactions below.
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