Balenciaga apologises for bondage bear advert involving child

[PandorasMailbox]

They're also taking legal action against its creator

What I want to know is who the hell signed it off and why were the parents happy to let it go ahead?

I've included the images for anyone who hasn't seen them.

It’s just the idea of these themes in art, which was inserted consciously in these balenciaga campaigns, which led me to get to thinking of it yesterday.

I just thought they (the campaign people) thought they were being edgy or that they could roll that out as an excuse although I did find the idea upthread that someone on the set deliberately added the court case so as to draw attention to what's going on in the pictures, an interesting one.

In general, I am certain that child sex-trafficking rings are used by state actors (secret services) to blackmail powerful people, including politicians. The Dutroux affair in Belgium, the Boys Town affair in the US, Epstein… And from a purely macchiavellian perspective, this tactic makes total sense, it is perfect.

I don't disagree.

Believe me I wish I had just stuck to the main story, I guess I was drawn in by clickbait ‘he gets cut off!!’ and then of course just annoyed it was blatantly staged. But still he’s being defended!
The scandal speaks for itself, they’ve publicly apologised and talked about child abuse, they’ve shut their posts - there’s no slipping under the radar going on. It’s a shit show. I’m confused about this conflation where I’m apparently asking for left wing voices. No, I’m just dismayed by dodgy clips being used.

Should have said ‘one should not share clips if one does not want comments’.
I haven’t watched the other clips but I do at least recognise where they come from. Well done, thank you so much!

As I said, I don’t care if people call me a conspiracy theorist, or a flat earther, or whatever.

But to me, three separate campaigns, all showing links to paedophilia, (the court doc one wasn’t the same campaign, it was a separate one in conjunction with Adidas). (So bondage bear, court doc, and torture books) is absolutely not a coincidence.

I think it’s intentionally nodding to the original pizzagate allegations through its themes, which was all about linking abuse rings to imagery and art

Here’s the court doc ad by the way.

A lot of people seem to think it was all one campaign, but it was nothing to do with the one involving the children.

But what for PicturesOfDogs? I can wrap my head around a photographer with paedophilic inclinations finding ways to be with children with his ,art‘. Maybe even coding his proclivities with symbols. (Though the court-Case and the BAAL tape really sound like some assistant wanted to expose him).

But beyond this, what point is there to do/publish these pics? Desensitize the public?

The court doc couldn’t possibly be an assistant trying to expose the photographer, as it was a completely different campaign. I’ve posted the image above. People seem to believe it’s the same one, but it’s not.
Nothing to do with this photographer at all.

How do you explain paedophillic imagery in three separate campaigns?!? That not a coincidence.

As to why they do it, I don’t know, because the like the edge? They enjoy skirting the line between being seen and unseen. It gives them thrills. Hiding in plain sight.

I think it’s a common thing with abusers. Just as much about the power trip as the abuse.

It kind of reminds me a bit of a serial killer keeping mementos of their victims.

I actually didn’t know the tape had BAAL on it until I’d just read it here today.
A pagan god who demands child sacrifice.
This again goes back into the pizzagate allegations, of child torture, sexual abuse a ritualistic sacrifice.
And the third balenciaga campaign with the books depicting… child torture, sexual abuse and ritualistic sacrifice.

Im not sure who is doing this, but it’s not a coincidence and it’s NOT a mistake.

People just want to cling to the idea it’s a one off mistake, or it’s a heroic assistant trying to bring attention to it, because the alternative is too fucking horrifying

They are all from the 2023 campaign. All advertising their new handbags.

Don't make this into a tinfoil hat conspiracy.

But I agree that there is a person/group of people involved in these photos who are getting an especial thrill from thinking they've got away with hiding in plain sight

No.
It was an entirely different campaign that was part of their collaboration with Adidas.

I said it above, I don’t care if people call me a conspiracy theorist. 🤷‍♀️

I love them as a brand, to me the bear bags remind me of my gothic days more than bondage. I think it's the press who has swung this to the negative and I hope the little girl involved isn't dragged through the papers!

Oh come on. Talk about a simplistic view 🙄

Why the fuck was my post deleted @mumsnet? I posted nothing but factual information about drag queens being in every area of life now, including children's entertainment, something that would have been unthinkable 5 years ago. And it is absolutely undeniable that many of them use fetishistic costumes and sexualised names. The public is absolutely used to seeing them everywhere and somebody made this decision to put them everywhere on behalf of the public. No specific name was mentioned.

Hi @MoirasSaggyBundles - if you have a post deletion query - please email us and we'd be happy to have a chat.

The point I was trying to make is that they might be different campaigns but there is a common thread.

Yeah, that was my point, so many people seem to think it’s a problem with one particular photographer, but it’s not.

I mentioned pizzagate, because I genuinely do feel like the occult/sacrifice themes are a nod it it. It might not be, but it just seems too alike to me. The themes are there and it’s very topical, you’d think if there was hint of a connection they’d steer clear.

Now whether that’s because they’re (I don’t know ‘they are’ but it’s clearly more than one person) ‘in on it’, whether they’re doing it to be ‘edgy’ or cool, or whether they’re just straight trolling, I don’t know.

But what I do know, is that it wasn’t a mistake, it wasn’t an assistant ringing the alarm, it wasn’t one photographer gone rogue.

Too many people would have had eyes on it, signed of it.

And a company combining occult imagery, with sexual bondage themes with a CHILD front and centre must not be allowed to stand.

I don't hold the photographer responsible. The creative director is 🚩

Most definitely.
But I guarantee the photographer will be the one who takes the fall for it

Yep he has reportedly received death threats. Well and truly thrown under the bus by Balenciaga - which honestly make me think worse of them than some tasteless shock-value ad campaigns.

That picture upthread of a child, face down, heavily masked, behind a table of empty drinks glasses. With that creepy bear behind the child's bottom. That is not accidental. That's just creepy as hell.

And who the hell would be the grown-up who carries that creepy bondage bear around as a handbag? I really do not understand how that creepy bear handbag could ever be an aspirational piece of expensive haute fashion. It's not. Its just plain creepy and pervy. And if I ever saw an adult carrying or wearing that creepy bear, I would clock them as a creep and someone I would not leave alone with children.

Or maybe that's the point? It is a marketing campaign deliberately aimed at the wealthy creep / paedophile "community"?

Nothing surprises me any more.

The pp may have a point re it being different campaigns.

It’s a bit misleading as Balenciaga apologise in the statement for the images with one photographer (the guy that lines stuff up) and also mentions suing them / or someone else for the court docs.

The court doc pic is another photographer though, who hasn’t commented

It still give us a series of situations, though, not just a single instance, involving Balenciaga, and not just a one-off.

First transgression... OK, accidental, possibly.

But two, and three?

No. That's getting into deliberate.

It repeats patterns of domestic violence and sexual violence, where victims are convinced by the abuser, and possibly others such as the police, to accept each assault as an "isolated incident" each time, rather than recognising a pattern of abusive behaviours, as posters are doing on this thread, linking images, previous images, people involved, etc.

No, it is not accidental.