French fashion house Balenciaga has apologised for its “Toy Stories” Christmas campaign which featured child models holding teddy bears in leather harnesses and other bondage gear.
“We sincerely apologise for any offense our holiday campaign may have caused,” the company said on an Instagram story.
“Our plush bear bags should not have been featured with children in this campaign. We have immediately removed the campaign from all platforms.”
The company also added:
“We apologise 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.”
It had been erroneously pointed out on Twitter that Balenciaga deleted all of its Instagram posts following the backlash. However, the company wiped its feed in July last year after creative director Demna Gvasalia said social media was “boring.”
the brand “Balenciaga” just did a uh….. interesting… photoshoot for their new products recently which included a very purposely poorly hidden court document about ‘virtual child porn’
normal stuff pic.twitter.com/zjMN5WhZ0s
— shoe (@shoe0nhead) November 21, 2022
The campaign photos were taken by National Geographic photographer Gabriele Galimberti. In a message posted to her Instagram, Galimberti said that after he received “hundreds” of hate messages “Lynching like these [sic] are addressed against wrong targets, and distract from the real problem, and criminals.”
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It is important to stress that the virtual child p*rn document which has drawn much ire on Twitter, was taken from Balenciaga campaign with Adidas. The document in question comes from the 2008 Supreme Court Case, United States v Williams, which criminalised the advertising, promoting, presenting, or distributing of child pornography.
Balenciaga also became the first major fashion label to leave Twitter following Elon Musk’s takeover
