Another ad campaign for Balenciaga’s Spring 2023 campaign featured an “hourglass bag” on what appeared to be an office desk. Seemingly innocent at first, upon closer inspection, online sleuths discovered something rather alarming. The designer Balenciaga bag was sitting atop printed copies of real court documents in a case about child pornography laws.
The backlash was swift. The world-over, netizens took to social media to express their disgust and outrage at the distasteful images. The hashtag #cancelBalenciaga began trending across platforms like Twitter and TikTok with many people accusing the brand, and its artistic director, Demna Gvasalia of endorsing child exploitation and paedophilia.
How did this dumpster fire of a campaign manage to get signed off in the first place?
Creative directors, design agency staff, photographer, set stylists, the children’s parents, digital marketing team…. There are literally so many eyes that would have seen this unfolding and nobody thought, “Hang on a second, this feels a bit exploitative to be using children to sell kinky teddy bear bags.” But nope, apparently, everyone involved with Balenciaga’s 2022 holiday campaign was happy to green-light this creepy campaign.
If luxury is the antithesis of poor taste, where is the luxury in this tacky series of imagery approved and signed off by Balenciaga? This scandal has well and truly ripped off the bandage and exposed a very ugly truth about something that goes far beyond fashion. It’s been interesting to witness the aftermath as every corner of the internet seemed to collide head-on, all rushing to give their take on what happened. One interesting voice was that of Tucker Carlson who hosts a show on Fox News called Tucker Carlson Tonight. He has previously helped to spread a well-known QAnon conspiracy theory that “a group of Satan-worshiping elites who run a child sex ring are trying to control our politics and media”.
On November 22, in light of the Balenciaga scandal, Carlson told his viewers, “Here you have a major international retail brand promoting kiddie porn and sex with children… and not promoting it subtly, but right out in the open.”
Now, I personally cannot stand Carlson, but this we can agree on, it’s absolutely abhorrent to see an innocent child selling a fetish teddy bear featuring bruised black eyes and a leather harness. It’s safe to say that nobody on that set protected those children.
I’ve seen many parents upset and angry at Balenciaga and everyone involved with the tasteless marketing campaign, and understandably so. On November 27, Kim Kardashian, who has a long-standing relationship with Demna and Balenciaga wrote on Twitter: “As a mother of four, I have been shaken by the disturbing images. The safety of children must be held with the highest regard, and any attempts to normalise child abuse of any kind should have no place in our society — period.”
Many were quick to point out the hypocrisy in her response, in particular with her eldest daughter North West, aged 9, who frequently joins her mother front row at fashion shows and events. “She exploits her children, one more than the rest,” wrote one user under a Reddit post about Kardashian’s statement. North West even accompanied her mother at Paris Fashion Week earlier this year when she was wearing a full-face black leather mask that, to many, replicated a bondage mask. Kanye West has been very publicly open about his disapproval when it comes to his ex-wife Kim allowing their daughter to have her own public TikTok account.
In February, Kim defended herself stating, “I am doing my best to protect our daughter while also allowing her to express her creativity in the medium that she wishes with adult supervision — because it brings her happiness.” But despite Kim’s attempts at protecting her daughter, North has been seen time and time again going Live on TikTok seemingly unsupervised and without permission. Heck, if Kim Kardashian can’t even manage to supervise what her child is being exposed to on the internet, with all her nannies, and army of staff around her, what hope do the rest of us have? If you’re a parent, how comfortable are you with your children being on social media? Where do we draw the line? Whatever you may think of the whole Balenciaga drama, I think we can all agree that a line was crossed. However, when did the line in question get so blurry that it was so easy for a huge luxury fashion house to cross over so brazenly? What role have we all played that led us to arrive at this cultural low point? In our complacency, are we all complicit?
