Luxury brand Balenciaga is facing a lot of heat over a recent ad campaign that features pictures of child models holding teddy bears while dressed in bondage gear.
And it didn’t stop there, the high-end designer also used an image of a Supreme Court opinion in a child pornography case as a prop promoting a handbag.
Gabriele Galimberti, the photographer for the campaign, addressed the issue on his Instagram account, saying the images were part of a project series called “Toy Stories.”
But conservative activists are outraged, including Penny Nance, the CEO of Concerned Women for America, a conservative women’s rights group, who called the photos “exploitive propaganda.”
Most of the images have been removed from the global brand’s website, Fox News reported.
“This is not about them being provocative and getting attention,” Nance said in an interview with Fox News Digital. “The entire campaign sexualizes children, period. It is child exploitation, period. And it feeds and normalizes a culture that is dark and depraved.”
“Balenciaga needs to answer for it,” she added.
Kelsey Bolar, who is a member of the Independent Women’s Forum, shared the same sentiment: “Balenciaga has no business introducing ‘bondage,’ a perverse adult sexual practice, to young children.”
“Worse, the fashion house is using these images to advertise its products, essentially profiting from the sexualization of children,” she said. “The desire to sexualize innocent children is a disturbing trend that’s emerged in today’s culture, and this is a twisted, disturbing example.”
Fox News host Carlson Tucker also called out the brand, saying it is supporting child pornography.
Balenciaga was also under fire for promoting its “Hourglass” handbag in collaboration with Adidas. That photograph captured the handbag on a desk with a portion of a page from a Supreme Court opinion, U.S. v. Williams that criminalized the pandering of child pornography, which included a reference to another case, Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition. In that case, the Supreme Court struck down a portion of the Child Pornography Prevention Act (CPPA) of 1996 and said that virtual child pornography is protected speech.
“They are trying to chum up attention by incorporating a Supreme Court child porn pandering case as window dressing. It’s connecting child porn with their product,” said Benjamin Bull, general counsel for the National Center on Sexual Exploitation. “It’s an exploitative attention-getting device.”
YouTube’s “Pop Culture Crisis” show host Mary Morgan pointed out Balenciaga has removed its account from Twitter following Elon Musk’s takeover. Musk recently announced his top priority would be to address child exploitative content on the site.
“Balenciaga recently dropped off of Twitter, and it’s highly suspicious as they just dropped an ad campaign featuring children holding teddy bears in bondage gear and a poorly hidden court document about ‘virtual child p—,’” she wrote to Fox News Digital. “The Balenciaga Instagram account has deleted all posts as well. When a big tech platform finally enforces their rules against the exploitation of children (even under the guise of ‘art’), pay close attention to the brands or individuals who make haste toward the exit.”
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