Luxury fashion brand Balenciaga is too good for Kanye West, but not too good for promoting child pornography.
After West’s (now Ye) recent anti-Semitic outburst, the hundred-year-old luxury fashion house was quick to the distance itself from the off-the-rails rapper. But a month later, he found himself in a public relations nightmare of his own making, thanks to an ad campaign that appears to endorse — you guessed it — child pornography.
the brand “Balenciaga” just did an…interesting…photo shoot for their new products recently which included an intentionally poorly hidden court document about “virtual child pornography”
normal stuff pic.twitter.com/zjMN5WhZ0s
— shoe (@shoe0nhead) November 21, 2022
In the campaign photos for Balenciaga’s gift collection, young children pose with teddy bears in what appears to be BDSM gear. And lest you think this is all just a horribly stupid accident, hidden among a stack of papers from spring campaign photos is the Supreme Court. United States v. Williams opinion, which upheld a federal law that prohibits child pornography in advertising, even if the content does not specifically constitute “child pornography.” Wow, I wonder if there is a connection here.
BALENCIAGA SUES COMPANY FOR $25 MILLION OVER CHILD PORNOGRAPHY AD: REPORT
In a rare display of outrage that cuts across political divides, onlookers of all ideological stripes have taken to online campaigns. Balenciaga quickly removed the photos – and then complained that the appearance of the pornographic case was not the brand’s fault, going so far as to Sue the production company he hired to shoot the spring campaign for $25 million.
Balenciaga claims that because the BDSM bears and the pornography case were featured in separate campaigns (although they were released around the same time), there is no connection between the two, and a rogue actor from the offending production company skipped the Supreme Court. document without the brand noticing.
“We strongly condemn child abuse; it was never our intention to include her in the narrative,” the brand said SAPS in a statement, now the only post on his Instagram account. Before you blame the United States v. Williams In the paper about the third parties involved in the campaign, Balenciaga at least took the blame for the children posing with sexual teddy bears: “This was a bad choice by Balenciaga, combined with our failure to evaluate and validate the images.”
But perhaps worse than the controversy itself and Balenciaga’s outrageous attempt to pass the buck is the fact that very few celebrities have said anything about it. Us normal people were outraged, of course. What about the millionaire actors and models who are quick to comment on any other form of perceived injustice? Not so much.
Nicole Kidman and supermodel Bella Hadid, who also starred in Balenciaga’s spring campaign, remained notably silent. Mother of four Kim Kardashian, who benefits from a multi-million dollar Balenciaga deal, took days to finally respond saying“I’ve been quiet the last few days, not because I wasn’t shocked and outraged by the recent Balenciaga campaigns, but because I wanted the opportunity to speak with their team to understand for myself how this could have happened.”
As a single account put it“translation: I have so***tons of custom made Balenciaga designs and I can’t stop wearing them lol.”
Kardashian went on to say that she is “re-evaluating” her relationship with the brand, “based on their willingness to accept responsibility for something that should never have happened — and the actions I expect to see them take to protect them. children.”
Fortunately, not all celebrities have piles of Balenciaga in their closets, and some have been quick to condemn the brand.
Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Cooper Kupp he posted on Twitter“To try to be a voice for our children, which is based on the protection of the men and women entrusted with the responsibility of nurturing and raising them: please be aware of the attack against our children by @balenciaga, and make sure they’re responsible for it!”
Country artist RaeLynn reply taking a Sharpie to her Balenciaga shoes, cutting out the brand’s name and writing “protect children” above it. She promised to auction off the pair of shoes and donate the proceeds to Operation Underground Railroad, an organization that fights child trafficking.
There’s nothing terribly unusual about fashion scandals, but rarely is one this blatant. When are all the celebrities who have spoken out in favor of Black Lives Matter and Palestine and abortion access going to comment? Not until they’re sure it won’t hurt a source of income — or a source of designer clothes.
But more than that, it’s just not the kind of social outrage that wins points. As Louise Perry writes in The Case Against the Sexual Revolution“there is something about the anxiety of pedophilia that is now considered rather low status among liberal elites.”
If talking about this social issue won’t inspire applause from the liberal media bubble, why bother?
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