The Provocative World of Balenciaga: How Far is Too Far?
The rebel child of luxury has done it again!
Balenciaga has always been intentionally at the center of controversy. Positioning itself as a provocative brand, Balenciaga has disrupted the norm in more ways than one. From fashion shows in unconventional environments like simulated snow storms, mud pits, and the New York Stock Exchange, to regular releases of absurd products like the “destroyed” sneakers and trash bag totes, the question now is where do you draw the line on how far they can go?
The answer: child abuse.
In November 2022, Balenciaga released a campaign online called “Gift Shop” to promote its holiday offerings. The photos released featured children holding teddy bears in bondage harnesses and costumes that seemed to allude to BDSM.
Five days later, the Spanish luxury house released their online campaign for their Spring 2023 Collection. In the photos, certain props were called out, such as a legal document pertaining to the Supreme Court’s decision on a child pornography case and a framed college certificate bearing the name of a convicted child abuser.
The backlash against these two campaigns was quick, and the hashtag #cancelBalenciaga immediately started trending across Twitter and TikTok. Many were accusing Balenciaga and its creative director, Demna, of condoning pedophilia, child exploitation, and overall child abuse.
Your Move, Balenciaga
Following the overwhelmingly negative response of the public, Balenciaga pulled the campaign and released the following initial statements on their Instagram:
Despite their attempt to appease the audience, their statements seemed to have sparked even more outrage. Some people are saying that the brand is avoiding taking responsibility, while others think that the whole mess is just another attempt at grabbing attention through controversial marketing.
In an exclusive interview with Vogue, Demna says that even though his work is deliberately provocative, this was not his intention in these campaigns. He clarifies that the teddy bears were not BDSM, but rather, are a reference to the punk and DIY culture, and everything else, like the documents, is just a mere coincidence.
He defends further and says:
“I didn’t realize how inappropriate it would be to put these objects [in the image] and still have the kid in the middle. It unfortunately was the wrong idea and a bad decision from me. […] No one, myself included, raised a question of it being inappropriate. There were control processes in place, people involved — internal and external — but we just did not spot what was problematic. This was an error of judgment. I regret this a lot.”
Pointing Fingers
Everyone can see as clear as day that Balenciaga is completely at fault here. However, the brand refuses to accept full responsibility for their own actions. They are putting the blame on the third parties that they hired, even filing a $25 million lawsuit against the production company. Fashion influencer Louis Pisano expresses on Twitter that “here they are trying to scapegoat the ‘parties responsible.’”
Eventually, the CEO of Balenciaga, Cédric Charbit, released a statement in December taking full responsibility for the controversy.
Easily Avoidable Mistake
A powerhouse like Balenciaga has more than enough resources to secure highly capable experts in their team. Furthermore, campaigns like these have to go through dozens of steps and approvals before their launch and they don’t happen on a whim. These are the reasons why it’s difficult for me to fathom how Balenciaga got to this point as this whole controversy could have easily been avoided.
To make matters worse, the crisis didn’t come from just one campaign, but two! The brand has acknowledged that the problem is rooted internally and that some of their processes have failed and that they need to do better.
Prior to the Gift Shop and Spring 2023 Collection campaigns, consumers expect nothing less of unconventional and absurd from Balenciaga. However, when the line between provocative and harmful is crossed, the cancel culture takes a stand.
What did you think of how Balenciaga managed this crisis?
Thank you for reading this week’s blog, and I’ll see you in the next one!
