Luxury fashion brand Balenciaga issued an apology after coming under fire earlier this week with their latest ad campaign which showed children holding onto teddy bears dressed in bondage outfits. When the photos from Balenciaga’s latest ad made its way onto Twitter, people were horrified that the French fashion house would have given their approval to run what many called “disgusting” photographs of children with stuffed animals in BDSM attire.
In one of the images lifted from the ad campaign, a young girl who appears no older than five is wearing an all-blue outfit with purple Balenciaga sneakers. But it’s the apparel of the teddy bear she’s holding that left people feeling uncomfortable, while another child from the photoshoot is holding up a stuffed animal with a choker around its neck.
Tucker Carlson Asking WTF Is Going On With Disturbing Balenciaga Ad Involving Children pic.twitter.com/ue1GGhkTM7
— The Columbia Bugle 🇺🇸 (@ColumbiaBugle) November 22, 2022
Balenciaga has apologized after the fashion label was accused of sexualizing children in its advertising,
The ads showed children posing with the company’s plush bear bags, which wear BDSM-inspired harnesses.https://t.co/xgz8OozC6F pic.twitter.com/oyyYKPVht9
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) November 23, 2022
While Balenciaga has since apologized, social media users on Twitter say they are boycotting the brand, having accused the company of glorifying not just sexualizing minors but also child abuse. Fox News host Tucker Carlson spoke on the controversy, expressing that there was absolutely no justification for putting children in such demeaning and sexually exploitative situations. “It should be a crime, period. And yet suddenly, it’s very common.”
He followed up his statement by citing an excerpt from the UCSF website, which claims that genital surgery “is being performed on a case-by-case basis more frequently in minors.” The decision on whether a child can go through with the procedure is based on the expert opinions of “innovators and thought leaders” in this particular field — a quote that Tucker couldn’t grasp his head around.
Tucker then went on to show another photograph that was said to have been taken during the teddy bear photoshoot, showing a bunch of legal documents referencing a U.S. Supreme court case pertaining to the alleged endorsement of child pornography.
So Balenciaga used toddlers to advertise BDSM trinkets, and the only mainstream outlet I’ve seen cover it is Fox. Someone tell me why this is apparently a partisan issue?
— Allie Beth Stuckey (@conservmillen) November 22, 2022
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When Fox News reached out to Balenciaga for comment, they had no response, but Tucker didn’t stop there — the 53-year-old questioned why there’s been such a lack of moral outrage over the scandal. “There’s no front-page New York Times editorial against it, and of course, Instagram let the advertisement run, endorsing kiddie p*rn.”
Balenciaga responded to the online backlash in an Instagram Story post, which read, “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 removed the campaign from all platforms.”