Balenciaga Ad Promotes Child Pornography | Arrogantly Dumped, Angered Netizens
As we all know, this is the age of traffic, and Balenciaga is known for its offbeat, wild and absurd creations. In the market brand circle frequently use a “ugly” marketing model. This ugly look has left more impressions and memories for consumers. By creating a buzz with the special design, it is a way to keep the brand hot and earn consumers’ attention.
But this time things are not so simple.
Balenciaga is again “out of the loop” for alleged child pornography and violent posters. The previous marketing was only limited to visuals, and did not have much impact. This time, it hit the minefield of almost universal outrage: child pornography. After the brand’s apology on social media, the matter still intensified and more details were magnified.
Photo of Children with Balenciaga Products
Balenciaga has released their new spring 2023 campaign photos. The result is a few photos that have sparked outrage. On the surface, the theme appears to be children and toys, with several children standing in a set-up, surrounded by Balenciaga’s products. The tone of the entire shoot seems to revolve around childishness.
One netizen was the first to spot the oddity of the photo: the teddy bears being held in the children’s hands or posed next to them. One of the teddy bears is surprisingly wearing a fishnet see-through outfit, with leather straps with bondage implications on all four limbs. There are also various BDSM accessories in the photos.
These dolls had earlier appeared in the show, but there is a fundamental difference between having adult models walk the runway with them and having children take pictures with them.
Young children should never be photographed with these sexually charged “toys”!
After this, another tweeter discovered the gruesome details in other Balenciaga ad photos.
In one handbag ad image, a document located at the bottom was placed in a way that seemed deliberate. The text in the corner of the enlarged paper proves that this is related to the 2002 Ashcroft v. Free Speech case, which also hinged on child pornography. The case overturned two “overreaching” provisions of the Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996. Most people decided that Parisienne was implicitly promoting child pornography.
After the first two photos were widely criticized by netizens, Balenciaga replaced them with another child-themed ad image. The setup of this shooting scene seems even more bizarre.
The first is the child model standing in the center of the room, who is wearing a pair of red shoes on his feet. This immediately made netizens think of the “Red Shoe Club”, which refers to this kind of child-hunting sex trade. Located on the floor to the left of the child were duct tape, a ski mask and some keys. Netizens feel that this is a series of things needed for a kidnapping or a crime scene. The duct tape shows BAAL, which is considered to be a sign of “devil worship. It was also noticed that the faces and images of the devil appeared several times in the various graffiti on the walls.
Some people may interpret so many meanings from a photo is just a coincidence, there is no need to extend to devil worship, child sacrifice. But another advertising picture of Parisian family makes netizens more firm their suspicion.
In this advertisement shot by the famous French actress Jupiter, there is a stack of books on the table behind her. Even if you don’t pay too much attention, you can notice that the top book has a row of capital letters written on the spine of the book. That row of letters is the name of an artist, MICHAEL BORREMANS, whose work is horrific, filled with themes of pedophilia, blood rituals, dark religion, occultism, racism, and has featured a lot of child nudity.
Perfunctory Apology and Collective Boycott by Netizens
The images and the inside story sent a huge shockwave through the internet, both in terms of the child pornography that sparked the controversy at the beginning, and the increasingly dark details that emerged after digging deeper, making people feel both horrible and angry. Public opinion on social media platforms exploded to the point where it was impossible to ignore, with prominent media outlets picking up on the story, while Balenciaga’s response was disappointing to many.
When the scandal first broke, they first restricted comments from internet users on ins. After that the situation expanded, it deleted all the photos on the social platform account simply by posting a limited time Instagram picture to apologize.
It wasn’t until the brand saw that Kim Kardashian was also starting to make noise that they finally made some moves.
They deleted the controversial ad and emptied the ins, uploading a formal apology letter.
The industry website Business of Fashion withdrew all awards previously given to the brand’s creative director Demna Gvasalia. However, Balenciaga claims they are pursuing their case and have sued the advertising agency North Six and the designer of the second ad, Nicholas Des Jardins. But the ad agency immediately countered that representatives from Balenciaga were present at the time the ad was shot and did not raise any objections to the ad prior to its release. During the actual filming of the ad, Balenciaga offered to clear the set, allowing several of the agency’s staff to leave, with only the Balenciaga people remaining in the studio.
This perfunctory approach made the netizens boil with anger and started a collective boycott. On social media platforms, many bloggers who used to be fans of Balenciaga have taken it upon themselves to destroy tens of thousands of dollars of the brand’s clothing. For example, shredding the Parisian house’s sweatshirt.
Art can be free, but not without a bottom line.
People can be bold, but not shameless.
I don’t know if this incident is also an out-of-the-loop marketing, but if it is, it is obviously overplayed and unnecessary. When everything happens too coincidentally, it’s hard not to wonder if it’s premeditated. So far, the matter has been pushed around like a ball, and finally it was pushed to the staff who set up the scene.
In any case, regardless of whether it was intentional or negligent, there is something wrong with the executives themselves for something that is out of place to jump into the public eye. I hope the fashion industry can take a lesson from this and not stink up their reputation, after all, because of this incident, many consumers have begun to have doubts and suspicions about the fashion industry. In the flood of the times, the brand no matter how big or small, the first thing is to comply with corporate ethics, and then think about how to make money.
