Balenciaga Sues Production Company To Deflect Blame
It’s fair to say that it has been an awful week for Balenciaga and its parent company Kering. The decision to remove Alessandro Michele as creative director of Gucci feels almost insignificant in relation to the current abhorrence at Balenciaga after an advertising campaign for their Spring/Summer 2023 collection backfired spectacularly.
Images posted and promoted by the brand for the campaign showed two very young girls posing with teddy bears that seemed to be wearing BDSM-style harnesses and clothing. After receiving much backlash online, the brand released an apology stating, “We sincerely apologize for any offense our holiday campaign may have caused. Our plush bear bags should not have been featured with children in this campaign. We have immediately removed the campaign from all platforms.” The apology was posted to the brand’s Instagram stories, clearly an attempt to minimise the permanence of such a statement. Although, this is the internet and screenshots exist. However, this isn’t where the story ends. Social media users noticed that in some other images, there seemed to be excerpts from a US Supreme Court case that upheld part of a federal child pornography law. Again, after receiving online backlash, Balenciaga apologised, or rather, put the blame on others. “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. We strongly condemn abuse of children in any form. We stand for children’s safety and well-being.”
Image: Balenciaga
Of course, social media users and the media alike have not taken this to be a genuine apology and are seeking answers to how something so dreadful could’ve found its way into an advertising campaign. After all, the brand will have had to sign off on every aspect of the production. The most reasonable course of action in Balenciaga’s mind is to deflect blame once more and sue the production company North Six Inc and set designer Nicholas Des Jardins for a whopping $25 million dollars solely relating to the US supreme court documents (there is nothing mentioned the BDSM teddy bears.) Balenciaga says they are seeking the suit in order “to seek redress for extensive damages defendants caused in connection with an advertising campaign Balenciaga hired them to produce.” The brand claims that North Six and Des Jardins had included the court documents without its knowledge, stating that it was “malevolent or, at the very least, extraordinarily reckless”.
The court papers go on to read that “As a result of Defendants’ misconduct, 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.” Only time will tell if the brand will be able to win this lawsuit, how Kering reacts in relation to creative director Demna’s possible involvements and any drops in sales and profits.
