Balenciaga, one of the most well known and highest end fashion brands have been exposed for some pretty horrific and sickening things involving children recently.
If you don’t know who Balenciaga are, they are an extremely high end fashion brand.. You hear the term ‘luxe’ or ‘luxury’ being pinged about regarding them. On the other hand you might just see what see and that is these god awful outfits!
Fashion labels aren’t really my thing. My philosophy is why buy for three grand when you get the same for a few quid?! Why the hell would I want a ‘trash bag’ bag anyway??
Teddy Bear Scandal
Now, unless you’ve been living under a rock these past few weeks you’ll have heard about the Balenciaga Teddy Bear Scandal. However, if you haven’t, then please crawl out from underneath that rock and let’s educate ourselves.
On 2nd October 2022 Balenciaga – oh thee of all high end fashion – launched their brand new Summer 2023 Collection and the advertising campaign that went with it turned a few heads. Now, when I say ‘a few heads’ I mean the internet literally had a meltdown and with good reason.
The ad campaign’s theme was disturbing. Children. Young children. Literal toddlers were photographed holding the worst looking, awful, obscene, angry, yet obscene, BDSM teddy bear you’ll ever see.
That’s right, a BDSM teddy, complete with chains, cuffs, dog collars, the lot. These were some sort of bags by the way. God knows who it’s aimed at, but one thing I can categorically and wholeheartedly say is they are not, I repeat NOT, aimed at, nor should ever be in the vicinity of young young children; far less children being the focal point of promoting these heavy-duty BDSM bear bags.
Teddies aside, the whole scene and setting for these pictures were just wrong on so many levels. Wine glasses. Who were these intended for? The whole setting was that of a groomer’s paradise.
As you can see from the photos it’s all set up nicely for a spot of sexual abuse with whomever the child is expecting. I’m sorry but it’s true. It’s just sick and highly warped.
Not one of those items being photographed is intended for children, so why have a child front and centre? Then to use a teddy, which is traditionally a child’s toy, coupled with a child but the toy is in full BDSM gear? You seeing the problem yet?
Child Pornography Document Scandal
Following on from the teddies scandal, Balenciaga’s other ad campaigns came under scrutiny as people started looking more closely at what they’d been up to. That’s where the Child Pornography Documents came to light.
This was in fact an earlier campaign from July 2022 but hadn’t been picked up on until the teddies campaign came under the spotlight.
In the campaign photo there was an office scene with lots of office stationery strewn about. A Balenciaga bag sat on top of a seemingly innocent document. However, upon closer look you can see the document was from a court case which determined whether or not child pornography could be deemed as free speech under American Law.
That’s right, in the middle of a Balenciaga ad campaign there was a child pornography court document. This was indeed verified to be from a real case. Why use a document from a real court case? and worse still, on that subject matter? It’s just so extremely off in so many ways. Why, just why, if not done intentionally? You just wouldn’t unless you were getting some sort of kick out of it.
Public Backlash
Did the internet do it’s thing? You better believe it did! The haters, the detractors, the woke, the non-woke, the vegan, the non-vegan – they all came out to join forces in their utter condemnation of the incidents. The public were calling for heads to roll, for the rich to ditch their Balenciaga outfits. There were public and recorded burning seshes of the brand and high-profile names came out of the woodwork to denounce their support of the brand. Even big Kimmy K took a stand after initially weighing up if it was worth losing thousands of dollars per year as a Brand Ambassador.
Fake Media Storm
Every news outlet latched onto the story with their slimey wriggly tenticles. Washington post, New York Post, The Daily…Mail…All banded together much in the same vein as the aforcementioned public did. All slamming Balenciaga for their sexualising of children in their ad campaign. Every story, from every single angle.
The sheer vitriol these news outlets spewed regarding how bad the portrayal of children in somewhat grooming environments – whilst using these very same photographs in their newspapers complete with BDSM teddy accompanied child! Not one outlet condidered the photos worthy enough to blur the child’s faces or cut the child out of the photo. Not one.
So, for all the sensationalism about how bad it was, clearly not bad enough to protect the kids.
I’m not usually one to stick up for new media versus mainstream, but conversely, every single video i’ve seen from YouTubers on the subject have blurred or blanked the children’s faces.
So much for mainstream being a better form of media!
Photographer
Gabriele Galimberti is the Italian photographer behind the now infamous teddy bear campaign. A well respected photographer previously working for such renowned outlets as the National Geographic, Galimberti feels he has been thrown to the wolves over the whole affair.
He says his job is basically to point and shoot and has no creative control over the props or setting the scene on jobs he works.
Whilst that may well be very true i can’t help but think as a professional you would have the right to refuse a job that amounted to Child Pornography. Surely your professional and moral stance would be more commendable and just a normal human reaction to at least question it.
Ad Agency
The ad agency behind both masterstrokes was North Six. They have claimed minimal responsibility over the Child Pornography Court documents appearing in that one photograph.
North Six are just another in a long line of missed opportunities to stop these campaigns before they gained this sort of traction, indeed before they got any further than the boardroom.
The Hidden Book
As if the catalogue of insanity wasn’t bad enough with the BDSM teddies and the Child Pornography court documents things are about to get a whole lot messier.
A book was spotted hidden in the backdrop of one of the campaign photographs. Fortunately this was not in a photo with a child otherwise I would have been calling CPS myself! The book was by outlandish author Michael Borremans titled Fire From The sun. The book is a very very very offbeat look at the innocence of children. However, in doing this, Borremans has done a series of paintings that depict fully naked CHILDREN. Some include these children holding and playing with severed limbs with bloodsoaked skins.
For obvious reasons I’m not going to show any here but needless to say the major news outlets did not disappoint and showed them in all their bloodied naked glory! The pictures are horrific. I understand different artists have different ways to express themselves but bloody hell I cannot for the life of me comprehend what depraved mind came up with such a thing.
It seems i’m not alone
Just why would this book even be purchased by anybody either as a prop or for personal use would leave me dubious over that person. Ultimately though, why would it have been placed on set of any photoshoot, particularly in a campaign that includes children?
Father of the child
I’ve seen many question where the parents are of the children who were used in this campaign. Well would it shock you at all if I said they were fine with it??
One of the fathers of one of the children has announced that all the kids were children of employees of Balenciaga and he could see nothing wrong with his child appearing in a photograph with bondage equipment. He announced that all concerned, including the children had a great time on set and thought it was a massive overreaction.
The problem here isn’t whether or not the kids were treated well on set. That’s the minimum i’d expect. It’s what the subsequent shots are being used to depict. Surely the parents can see that? No?
Apology?
When Balenciaga finally came out with their ‘apology’ it was worse than that of those YouTubers who are forced to make an ‘apology’ video. They distanced and absolved themselves of any blame.
