Balenciaga Sues Production Company Days After New Ad Campaign Sexualized Children
By Movieguide® Staff
Earlier this week, the high-fashion company Balenciaga issued an apology after its holiday ad campaign called “Toy Stories,” depicted children holding bags shaped like teddy bears wearing sexually explicit clothing.
Although the company apologized for their overt sexualization of children, Balenciaga found itself entangled in another controversy after a recent ad for one of their $3,000 purses contained documents from a 2008 Supreme Court case dealing with child pornography.
In the ad, a printout of the 2008 United States v. Williams court case, which ruled on the constitutionality of law prohibiting the pandering of child pornography, can be seen in the background.
Balenciaga is now suing the third-party production company, North Six, and set designer, Nicholas Des Jardins over the ad campaign.
Court documents alleged that the ad did not run with the permission of Balenciaga and that accused North Six of being “malevolent or, at the very least, extraordinarily reckless.”
Gabriela Moussaieff, Des Jardins’ agent said that printouts were specifically made as rental pieces for movies and photoshoots.
“Everyone from Balenciaga was on the shoot and was present on every shot and worked on the edit of every image in post production,” Moussaieff added, noting that Balenciaga is merely using Des Jardins as a “scapegoat.”
“We strongly condemn abuse of children in any form,” a statement from Balenciaga read.
Priscilla Gonzalez, a Mexico-based stylist called out Balenciaga for their stunt, claiming it was a marketing ploy gone wrong.
“All of these decisions go through so many levels of approval and eyes,” she said. “So who approved this and where did everything go wrong? There really needs to be some accountability within Balenciaga.”
This ad campaign proves the importance of remaining vigilant in media discernment. Parents must take action to prevent the normalization of child pornography.
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