‘WRONG CHOICE’: Balenciaga condemns child abuse, apologizes again for ads

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Balenciaga continues to feel the heat so naturally another apology was in order.

The fashion house had stripped its Instagram of all its posts last week after it received fierce backlash for a controversial ad campaign that featured children holding teddy bears that were wearing bondage and harnesses.

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But it has since added a new post to “strongly condemn child abuse” and address the “two separate ad campaigns” which “reflect a series of grievous errors for which Balenciaga takes responsibility.”

The company explained: “Our plush bear bags and the gift collection should have not been featured with children,” the statement continued. “This was a wrong choice by Balenciaga, combined with our failure in assessing and validating images.”

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The label added: “The responsibility for this lies with Balenciaga alone.”

The fashion house also addressed the legal documents included in the ad from a case that ruled on child porn laws.

“The second, separate campaign for spring 2023, which was meant to replicate a business office environment, included a photo from a page in the background from a Supreme Court ruling ‘United States v. Williams’ 2008 which confirms as illegal and not protected by freedom of speech the promotion of child pornography,” Balenciaga wrote.

“All the items included in this shooting were provided by third parties that confirmed in writing that these props were fake office documents.”

However, “they turned out to be real legal papers” of which Balenciaga called the “inclusion of these unapproved documents” the result of “reckless negligence,” presumably by a contract worker hired for the photo shoot, over whom “Balenciaga has filed a complaint.”