The campaign, which has received much criticism, showed images of children posing with teddy bear handbags for the luxury fashion brand’s holiday gift shop. The bears appeared to be dressed in bondage gear, including leather harnesses, collars and fishnet shirts, and empty wine glasses could be seen on a table in front of the child models. The campaign has been removed from all platforms, the company said last week.
In another, unrelated ad for a spring 2023 campaign, people noticed that one of the pictures appeared to use a 2008 Supreme Court decision in a child pornography case to promote a purse. Balenciaga previously told Newsweek that it would be “pursuing legal action against the outside contractors who oversaw the creation and management of the sets” for the spring campaign.
After issuing an apology last week, Balenciaga reiterated its apology for the advertisements in its Monday statement.
The full statement, which was posted as a story on Balenciaga’s Instagram account, reads:
“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 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 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] 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 said.
The company added that “internal and external investigations are ongoing” and that it is working to enforce stronger protocols within its creative processes and “validation steps.”
It also said, “We are laying the groundwork with organizations who specialize in child protection [and aim] at ending child abuse and exploitation. We want to learn from our mistakes and identify ways we can contribute.
“Balenciaga reiterates its sincere apologies for the offense we have caused and extends its apologies to talents and partners,” the statement concluded.
Newsweek has reached out to Balenciaga for comment.
