Luxury fashion house Balenciaga apologized Tuesday for its recent ad campaign, which used photos of sexualized children as they posed with teddy bears wearing costumes.
One of the photos included a US Supreme Court case, US v. Williams, which criminalized child pornography. The portion shown in the image refers to another Supreme Court case, Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalitionwhich made virtual child pornography protected speech.
The company has been accused of “normalizing child pornography” by many.
“They’re trying to get attention by incorporating a Supreme Court child pornography case as window dressing,” said National Center on Sexual Exploitation general counsel Benjamin Bull. “It links child porn to their product.”
The company faced significant backlash, prompting them to remove the photos and issue an apology. They also launched legal action “against the parties responsible for creating the set.”
“We apologize for the appearance of disturbing documents in our campaign,” the company posted on Instagram.
Update: Balenciaga has now issued a public apology and is “taking legal action” against the creator of its disturbing ad campaign featuring children with teddy bears in slavery along with court documents regarding the legalization of mock child sexual abuse. pic.twitter.com/e9IEDYoMne
— Laila Mickelwait (@LailaMicklewait) November 23, 2022
The company says some of the items featured in the photos were “unapproved” and that it “strongly condemns child abuse in any form”.
“We support the safety and well-being of children,” they continued. “We sincerely apologize for any offense our holiday campaign may have caused. Our teddy bear bags should not be featured with children in this campaign.”
the brand “Balenciaga” just did an…interesting…photo shoot for their new products recently, which included a very deliberately poorly hidden court document about “virtual child porn”
normal things pic.twitter.com/zjMN5WhZ0s
— shoe (@shoe0nhead) November 21, 2022
“It’s not about being provocative and getting attention,” Concerned Women for America CEO Penny Nance told Fox News. “The whole campaign is sexualizing children, period. It’s child exploitation, period. And it feeds and normalizes a culture that is dark and corrupt.”
Nicole Kidman appears in Balenciaga’s spring 2023 collection, while Kim Kardashian and Bella Hadid have been ambassadors for the brand.
Breccan F. Thies is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @BreccanFThies.