Balenciaga Issues Lengthy Apology, Reveals 3 Steps They’re Taking After Controversial Bondage Bear Campaign

Balenciaga has issued a longer apology for their controversial ad featuring kids holding BDSM teddy bears.

The ad campaign also had image featuring the Supreme Court ruling from “United States v. Williams” about child pornography.

“We would like to address the controversies surrounding our recent ad campaigns. We strongly condemn child abuse; it was never our intent to include it in our narrative. The two separate ad campaigns in question reflect a series of grievous errors for which Balenciaga takes responsibility,” the statement read. “The first campaign, the gift collection campaign, featured children with plush bear bags dressed in what some have labelled BDSM-inspired outfits. Our plush bear bags and the gift collection should not have been featured with children. This was a wrong choice by Balenciaga, combined with our failure in assessing and validating images. The responsibility for this lies with Balenciaga alone.”

The statement continued,

“The second, separate campaign for spring 2023, which was meant to replicate a business office environment, included a photo with a page in the background from a Supreme Court ruling ‘United States v. Williams’ 2008 which confirms as illegal and not protected by Freedom of Speech the promotion of child pornography. All the items included in this shooting were provided by third parties that confirmed in writing that these props were fake office documents. They turned out to be real legal papers most likely coming from the filming of a television drama. The inclusion of these unapproved documents was the result of reckless negligence for which Balenciaga has filed a complaint. We take full accountability for our lack of oversight and control of the documents in the background and we could have done things differently.”

Balenciaga then revealed that they are taking three distinct actions in response to what happened.

First, the brand said said, “we are closely revising our organization and collective ways of working.”

Balenciaga added that secondly, they are “reinforcing the structures around our creative processes and validation steps. We want to ensure that new controls mark a pivot and will prevent this from happening again.”

Finally, they say, “we are laying the groundwork with organizations who specialize in child protection and aims at ending child abuse and exploitation.”

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