Kim Kardashian said she is “re-evaluating” her sponsorship deal with Kering’s Balenciaga, breaking her silence after an advertising campaign featuring children modelling BDSM-inspired products sparked a major public relations crisis.
“As a mother of four, I have been shaken by the disturbing images,” Kardashian said in a post Sunday, explaining she had remained silent regarding Balenciaga’s controversial campaign images because she wanted to give the brand a chance to explain to her what had happened.
Balenciaga withdrew the campaign last week amid accusations that it was promoting the sexualisation of children. The brand’s teddy bear accessories, wearing BDSM harnesses, were a buzzy hit at its spring-summer 2023 show, but Balenciaga was widely condemned when it featured the items on children in intimate settings including on a bed.
The brand apologised for the campaign and pulled the images, saying it “strongly condemn[s] abuse of children in any form.”
But the move failed to diffuse the uproar. Backlash to the problematic campaign sparked netizens to unearth messages they deemed pedophilic embedded in the set of another Balenciaga campaign featuring actress Isabelle Huppert. The brand has said it is “taking legal action against the parties responsible for creating the set including unapproved items.”
The controversy landed Balenciaga a segment on Tucker Carlson’s conservative Fox News program, further fuelling public anger. On the other side of the political spectrum, Instagram account Diet Prada called the campaign “disturbing and wrong af.”
Under creative director Demna, Balenciaga has regularly used edgy stunts — such as marketing leather trash bags, destroyed sneakers and bedazzled platform Crocs — to fuel social media debate. In recent months, however, the brand has waded into riskier waters — provoking outrage with its choice to have rapper Ye (formerly Kanye West) open its spring-summer 2023 runway show even as the entertainer was facing criticism for incendiary statements.
The brand has since cut ties with the entertainer and asked to have images of his participation in the show scrubbed from fashion news outlets. In recent days, the brand also became fashion’s first major player to leave Twitter amid concerns that changes to content moderation by new owner Elon Musk would unleash hate speech on the platform.
Kardashian, alongside other celebrity spokespeople like Justin Bieber and Huppert, has been key to boosting awareness of Balenciaga among US consumers, who have driven luxury growth since the pandemic. The TV personality and Skims-founder, who divorced Ye earlier this year, has worn the brand to a string of high-profile events as well as fronting their campaigns.
The star posted on Instagram Sunday that she believes Balenciaga “understands the seriousness of the issue and will take the necessary measures for this to never happen again.”
“I am re-evaluating my relationship with the brand basing it off their willingness to accept accountability for something that never should have happened to begin with — and the actions I am expecting to see them take to protect children,” she wrote.
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Balenciaga Apologises After Accusations It Sexualised Children in Ads
The label deleted photos featuring children holding teddy bears clad in what appeared to be bondage gear after the images generated outrage on social media.
