Kim Kardashian, Bella Hadid & Other Celebs Take Heat for Not Slamming Balenciaga for Using Kids in “Bondage Gear” Ad Campaign
Edited by: TJVNews.com
It appears that some celebrities are taking heat from fans for not being more vocal in their denunciations of Balenciaga for its controversial ad campaign that features very young children holding teddy bears dressed in bondage-style harnesses.
The New York Post reported among the celebs who are under scrutiny for their silence on the issue are Kim Kardashian and super model Bella Hadid.
Clearly, this new ad campaign that is meant to introduce Balenciaga’s new Objects collection, which features a range of items including lunch boxes, candles, travel pillows, dinnerware and more which are displayed in the photos of child models has raised serious questions about whether the fashion house is engaging in moral turpitude and the sexual exploitation of children.
Amid serious backlash, on Tuesday, Balenciaga jettisoned the controversial campaign, the Post reported. The next day, Balenciaga deleted every picture off of its Instagram, but left up its Story highlights — including its apology for the bad news bears, according to the report.
One Twitter user stated – Twitter: “There’s a bunch of pedophilia in these #Balenciaga pics!” The Media: “There is a completely unfounded conspiracy theory running around that there’s pedophilia in some Balenciaga pics.” Balenciaga: “We apologize for the pedophilia in our pics.”
Another Twitter user posted: “We need to wake up! What #Balenciaga did was on purpose and not an error. The woke mob is executing an AGENDA that tries to normalize pedophilia! They’re inducing research papers to ban the word pedophile as we speak. They’re brainwashing your kids in real time #BalenciagaGate “
The first major fashion house to completely remove its Twitter account in the aftermath of Elon Musk’s purchase of the social media platform was Balenciaga. In July of 2021, the Balenciaga Instagram profile, followed by 11,6 million people, was wiped of virtually all its content. The move currently has no official explanation with no statements from the Spanish fashion label.
In a statement issued on Wednesday to the Post Balenciaga said that it’s business as usual. “Balenciaga’s Instagram is periodically wiped after each campaign, collection release, etc.,” a rep noted.
Amid the outcry Wednesday, Hadid seemed to post then delete an Instagram carousel that included several pictures from her recent Balenciaga campaign, the Post reported. .
The supermodel, 26, has not publicly condemned the fashion house since the “bondage” gear ads were quashed, the Post reported. The Post reported that fans, however did laud her for scrapping the pics.
“Thank you for deleting that other post,” one Instagrammer wrote.
Also having a long history with Balenciaga is Kardashian, 42, who also being called upon to publicly speak out against the company, the Post reported. Kardashian posed for Balenciaga’s winter 2022 ad campaign and walked in its Paris couture fashion show in July, the paper added.
On Wednesday, a source close to Kardashian told the Post, “Like everyone else, Kim was incredibly upset and disturbed by the holiday campaign. As a mother, she has no tolerance for abuse or exploitation of children on any level.”
The source continued: “After speaking with the Balenciaga team privately, as well as seeing that they immediately removed the campaign images and issued a public apology, she is hopeful that they have learned from this incident and that it never happens again.”
Fans have been flooding Kardashian’s Instagram comments, urging her to address the problematic ads, the Post reported.
“Nobody wants to buy anything from you. Speak up and stand for something,” one angry fan commented on her post that promoted a sale on her skin care line. “Please speak up about Balenciaga. You cannot avoid it being that you have been such a big supporter of them,” another fan pleaded, as was reported by the Post.
“When are you going to respond Kim?! Your reputation is on the line here,” another begged. “You are a mom. Don’t let it slide,” another poked the mother of four, according to the Post report.
Online shoppers spotted the Balenciaga adverts and were infuriated, calling the images “frightening,” “creepy” and “wrong,” according to the Post report.
According to the DailyDot.com report, Balenciaga is being called out for this outrage by a viral TikToker who has accused the fashion house of promoting child fetish content and possibly exploiting child models with their new advertisement campaign.
Rach McQueen (@rachmcqueen1), who has nearly 10,000 followers, is known for posting celebrity and entertainment news recaps on TikTok. DailyDot.com reported that on Monday, she posted a video breaking down the Balenciaga advertisement, which she says looks “exactly” like child pornography or fetish content.
One furious Twitter user posted, “I thought people were trolling, but nope. It’s real. Maybe this is why Balenciaga left Twitter. They don’t want to be held accountable. Yes, these are children holding teddy bears dressed in bondage outfits.”
A social media watchdog group alleged that “The brand ‘Balenciaga’ just did a uh….. interesting… photoshoot for their new products recently which included a very purposely poorly hidden court document about ‘virtual child porn’ normal stuff.”
“This is f’ing gross and infuriating. I try my best to avoid what seem like conspiracies here on Twitter, but they intentionally included this child porn reference in their shoot,” another chimed in, using the hashtag “burnitdown.”
DailyDot.com also reported that McQueen, the TikToker, says the photos seemed more “crazy” when she dug a little deeper. In her video, she shares a screenshot of an image on the Balenciaga website’s home page. The image is seemingly harmless, picturing a small handbag on top of a pile of papers and folders. McQueen says when she zoomed in on the documents in the photo, she noticed words and phrases like “speech coalition,” “sexual intercourse,” “pornography” and “sex.”
“Obviously, when we tie that document to these images [of the children] it becomes even more disturbing,” McQueen says, as was reported by DailyDot.com
McQueen claims that the documents seen in the photo came from Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition, a court case arguing that images that don’t actually depict child pornography — but only imply it — should be legal.
