Two Balenciaga ad campaigns backfire on company

Two new Balenciaga campaigns left viewers disgusted wondering if their campaign was promoting child pornography and glorifying violence against children. On Nov.16 Balenciaga published their campaign called Balenciaga Gift Shop, which featured images of young children with the handbags that looked like teddy bears wearing what some say was bondage gear. Five days later, Balenciaga published their 2023 Garde-Robe advertising campaign, and when viewers zoomed in on the images they found that papers underneath the purse were from a Supreme Court decision on child pornography laws.

The Garde-Robe campaign had multiple images that had viewers concerned and wanting answers. In one of the ads, a $3,000 Balenciaga x Adidas Hourglass handbag was on a desk covered with papers but one of them was the copy of the Supreme Court’s 2008 decision in the U.S. v. Williams case. This case looked over whether laws banning the “pandering” of child pornography was against First Amendment rights.

Another prop in the Garde-Robe campaign included the book “As sweet as It Gets” by a Belgian painter Michaël Borremans whose paintings have been shown at the David Zwirner gallery. This gallery described Borremans painting as “Toddlers engaged in playful but mysterious acts with sinister overtones and insinuations of violence.” 

Balenciaga made their first apology post on Nov. 24 for the Gift Shop campaign. Balenciaga said,” 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.” 

Just hours later a second apology post came addressing the 2023 Garde-Robe campaign. Again, Balenciaga said, “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 photo shoot. We strongly condemn abuse of children in any form. We stand for children’s safety and well-being.”

Many feel like Balenciaga should be held responsible for their actions and even feel like maybe some celebrities should back out of their brand deal. Kaitlyn Shellooe, a senior Hutchin major said, “I think that people try too hard to “make art” and don’t realize how weird and wrong somethings are. It’s a really weird concept to sexualize kids and put them in a BDSM situation and try to pass it off as “art”. It really doesn’t make sense to me. I agree with the celebrities that are backing out of the campaign, I would do the same, it’s just overall an uncomfortable thing to look at.”

Senior early childhood education major Jenny Siebuhr felt that if celebrities want to stay with the brand then they can face the repercussions themselves. Siebuhr said, “ I think that it was inappropriate that Balenciaga chose to promote the bondage bears with little kids. I’m not really sure about influencers because my thought is that they choose who they want to represent and it’s their choice. If they want the backlash and stuff like that then I don’t really care either way. I don’t think Balenciaga knew about the papers but they doesn’t mean that they don’t have have certain beliefs centered around child pornography.”

Lilia Alcazar, a senior sociology major, feels strongly that Balenciaga is in the wrong. Alcazar said, “Honestly, the creator behind Balenciaga knew exactly what they were doing. They had no right to put children in those conditions, much less adults because that type of propaganda is disgusting.”

Overall we have to think about the safety of young children and what we subject them to. They all learn from us so we have to be great role models.