On Friday, French luxury brand Balenciaga brought a 25 million dollar lawsuit against production company North Six, Inc. and set designer Nicholas Des Jardins for the inclusion of a U.S. Supreme Court decision on child pornography laws in one of its holiday ads.
Earlier this week, Balenciaga apologized for the Instagram ad campaign featuring toddlers posing with teddy bears dressed in BDSM outfits and photographs of documents related to child pornography.
interesting timing pic.twitter.com/sST1MkKAPd
— shoe (@shoe0nhead) November 21, 2022
The ad campaign featured children posing with teddy bears dressed in bondage outfits, including a leather harness. One of the photographs shows a child lying face-down on a couch. The table in front of her has wine glasses, candles, and a dog collar placed on top of it. Another photograph displays a half-hidden picture of a page from a Supreme Court opinion, U.S. v. Williams, which criminalized the pandering of child pornography.
The visible portion of the document also references another Supreme Court case, Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition, in which the court struck down a section of the Child Pornography Prevention Act (CPPA) of 1996 and decreed that child pornography is protected speech. Twitter users were quick to point out other disturbing elements in the photographs, such as blacked-out eyes and the name of the demon “Baal.” Another Twitter user pointed out that one of the books on the coffee table was written by Michaël Borremans, an artist who created “Fire from the Sun,” a series of paintings depicting naked toddlers.
In a statement posted in an Instagram story, Balenciaga apologized for having their plush bears featured with children in their holiday campaign. “We have immediately removed the campaign from all platforms,” the company said.
In a second Instagram story posted a few hours later, the company apologized for any “unsettling” documents used in the campaign, which they said were “unapproved.” The company stated that they were taking legal action against the parties responsible for the set.
Conservatives and Right-wing commentators like Fox News’s Tucker Carlson were quick to point out the hypocrisy and tolerance for pedophilia among the elite in our society.
On Friday, Balenciaga brought a 25 million dollar lawsuit against production company North Six, Inc. and set designer Nicholas Des Jardins for the inclusion of a U.S. Supreme Court decision on child pornography laws in one of the ads. The court papers do not mention the teddy bears dressed in bondage outfits.
The photographer responsible for the campaign has issued a statement saying that while he was not in a position to comment on Balenciaga’s choices, he was “not entitled in whatsoever manner to neither choose the products, nor the models, nor the combination of the same.”
The lawsuit documents against the ad production company and set designer do not mention the teddy bears.
