Balenciaga apologizes for 'disgusting' ads featuring children and pedophilia

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Fashion house Balenciaga shocked many with a campaign that promotes child pornography. Namely, the girls in the photos pose holding teddy bears wearing chains. Many Twitter users took this as a promotion of BDSM, that is, the type of s*x that implies an established power dynamic.

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

But this is not the end of the bizarre.

One of the photos shows part of the United States Supreme Court ruling on child pornography laws.

Balenciaga released a statement.

"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," the company posted on its Instagram Story. "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."

Through a verified account on Twitter, CJ Pearson tweeted:

"Balenciaga severed their ties with @kanyewest due to a tweet. Yet they expect us to just 'accept their apology' after they get caught up s*xualizing children? They're not apologizing because they're sorry.

They're apologizing because they got caught."

"Ridiculous," said another verified user.

"If after promoting the s*xualization of kids, #Balenciaga isn't forced to endure a major overhaul, or better yet go under, it demonstrates all you need to know about the current state of the world's elite corporations.

Their apology is ridiculous. They were testing the waters." "Balenciaga just issued the most disgusting apology ever," someone else wrote, while a separate user posted, "Is Balenciaga dodging accountability by blaming the set designers or am I trippen [sic]? What were the unapproved items? Did they JUST realize children shouldn't be involved after being called out? Lmaoo this apology solves nothing." Kim Kardashian, who has collaborated with Balenciaga several times, stated that this campaign was shocking and that the exploitation of children is unacceptable.

She also mentioned that she is currently considering whether to continue the collaboration. Balenciaga filed a $25 million lawsuit against North Six and set designer Nicholas Des Jardins, who designed the campaign.