After fetish teddy faux pas: Balenciaga tries an apology

Kim Kardashian on Ad Campaign: 'Disturbing Images'

Actually, it should be about the gift collection of the designer label. But after the huge missteps, that is now a minor matter : On Twitter, users called the advertising terrible on Tuesday and called for a boycott of the brand.

Reality star Kim Kardashian, a longtime customer of the luxury brand, wrote on Monday that she was disgusted and appalled by the campaigns. 'As a mother of four children, the disturbing images shocked me.' Any attempt to normalize child abuse has no place in society.

Fashion house admits mistakes

The fashion house of the French group Kering apologized and admitted a number of serious errors in the campaigns, according to a letter published by creative director Demna Gvasalia. “We condemn child abuse. It was never our intention to tie it into our narrative. The two different advertising campaigns are the result of serious mistakes for which Balenciaga will take responsibility.'

The fetish teddies should never have been advertised together with children. 'This was a wrong decision by Balenciaga, combined with our failure to judge and rate images,' the company said in a post shared on Instagram.

Company has filed a lawsuit

But how do the documents relating to a child pornography case get included in the brand's advertising images?

The luxury label said that in the advertising campaign for the spring, service providers did not provide fake office documents as props, as agreed, but real court documents. Showing the document at all is already “illegal and not covered by freedom of expression (Original: Freedom of Speech, editor’s note).”

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“The fact that these unauthorized documents were used was the result of negligence. Balenciaga has filed a lawsuit. We accept full responsibility for not having examined and checked the documents more closely. We could have done things differently,” writes the group.

Balenciaga suspects the real documents come from filming a TV drama.

Structures and processes should be questioned

Within the company, the organizational structure and working methods would now be questioned. In addition, the structures around the creative processes and the control of the same should be questioned and restructured so that such a mistake does not happen again. 'We want to learn from our mistakes and find out how we can do our part,' the company continues. 'Balenciaga sincerely apologizes for the offense we have caused and also apologizes to its talents and partners.'

The company also wants to work with organizations that want to end child abuse and exploitation. But is all this enough to make up for the image damage caused? ( eon/dpa )