Following the controversy, Balenciaga renews its apologies and announces a rehabilitation program

Difficult to be interested in fashion and have escaped the latest controversy of Balenciaga. The last two campaigns of the luxury house of the Kering group have featured children with BDSM teddy bags on the one hand, and adult celebrities in front of legal documents concerning child pornography on the other. What to arouse public outrage. So much so that the brand apologized for the first time on November 22, before filing a complaint in the Supreme Court of Manhattan (New York) seven days later, against the production house North Six and the set designer Nicholas Des Gardens. But now he’s changing his strategy.

Balenciaga withdraws its claim and announces how it intends to fix its mistake

Indeed, on December 2, 2022, Demna Gvasalia, current artistic director of Balenciaga, personally apologized on his Instagram account:

” Personal message

I would like to personally apologize for the poor artistic choice of the concept for the gift campaign with children and take responsibility.
It was inappropriate for children to promote items that had nothing to do with them.

While I would sometimes like to provoke thoughts through my work, I would NEVER intend to with a subject as horrific as child abuse, which I condemn. Points bar.

I need to learn from this, listen and dialogue with child protection organizations to know how I can contribute and help on this awful topic.

I apologize to anyone who has been offended by the images and Balenciaga has guaranteed that adequate measures will be taken not only to avoid similar errors in the future but also to take responsibility for protecting the well-being of children in all possible ways.

Sincerely

To ask “

In the process, Balenciaga chairman and CEO Cédric Charbit publicly announced that he would drop the charges against production house North Six and production designer Nicholas Des Jardins. The CEO also presented the concrete steps the brand was taking to prevent such a problem from happening again: a pictureboard responsible” in order to evaluate the nature of our content, from conception to the final product, including from the point of view of legal competence, sustainability and diversity Furthermore, the house specifies that it has reorganized its image division and has also entrusted itself to an external communication agency, for greater vigilance.

Redeem a virtue after a scandal, instructions for use

As reported by the specialized media Fashion networkBalenciaga is now starting internal training for its teams on “ responsible communication », as well as a tour of child protection associations. A fund dedicated to this type of organization has even been opened.

Withdrawal of the offending campaigns, an apology letter from the principals concerned who assume responsibility rather than blaming the usual very useful subordinate “fuse”, announcement of reorganization of the service in question and training, rapprochement with the associations in the matter, and above all donations of money for redeeming a virtue… A program that ticks all the boxes for well-conducted crisis management.

Title of the photo: Balenciaga.