Balenciaga is seriously facing some heat following two controversial campaigns– one featuring children and teddy bears in bondage gear and another ad that featured an excerpt from a Supreme Court ruling involving child pornography. The brand is trying to cover its tracks by suing the production company hired for the latter campaign.
The images of the children were previously removed, and in a statement Monday, the brand said, “We strongly condemn child abuse.”
It continued, “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 also alleged, “reckless negligence” from third parties resulted in the Supreme Court docs being included in the ad. Apparently, Balenciaga hired an independent production company, North Six, and set designer Nicholas Des Jardins to create the ad.
“All the items included in this shooting were provided by third parties that confirmed in writing that these props were fake office documents,” Balenciaga said. “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.”
North Six is now being sued by Balenciaga for $25 million.
The lawsuit alleges the North Six campaign “included certain documents in the campaign photographs, including an excerpt from a court decision upholding a criminal prohibition against child pornography,” without the luxury brand’s knowledge. However, Des Jardin claims Balenciaga knew what the final ad looked like.
The document took a quote specifically from the 2002 Supreme Court case Ashcroft vs. Free Speech Coalition. Balenciaga is suing the company for “extensive damages,” saying that “members of the public, including the news media, have falsely and horrifically associated Balenciaga with the repulsive and deeply disturbing subject of the court decision.”
“Everyone from Balenciaga was on the shoot and was present on every shot and worked on the edit of every image in post-production,” Des Jardin’s spokesperson responded. “This has all been blown out of context, and we are hiring a legal team to support Nick on this, which is why no one has commented yet.”
Balenciaga apologized for the documentation but not for the ad campaign itself.
“We apologize for displaying unsettling documents in our campaign.” The Balenciaga team commented last week. “We take this matter very seriously and are taking legal action against the parties responsible for creating the set and including unapproved items for our Spring 23 campaign photoshoot.”
