Kim Kardashian released a statement detailing her disgust and outrage about the controversy over bizarre marketing campaigns from the Balenciaga global fashion brand.
Social media users excoriated the company after finding advertisements showing young children holding stuffed animals with bondage paraphernalia. The images also included documents related to a U.S. Supreme Court decision related to a a federal child pornography law.
It took Kardashian, who has a professional partnership with Balenciaga, about a week to release a statement about the disturbing campaign.
“I have been quiet for the past few days, not because I haven’t been disgusted and outraged by the recent Balenciaga campaigns, but because I wanted an opportunity to speak to their team to understand for myself how this could have happened,” Kardashian tweeted Sunday.
She went to say she was “shaken” by the disturbing images as a mother of four children.
“The safety of children must be held with the highest regard and any attempts to normalize child abuse of any kind should have no place in our society — period,” she added.
Kardashian said she appreciated the company removing the campaigns and apologizing for them and added that the company told her it would take steps to prevent a recurrence.
“As for my future with Balenciaga, I am currently re-evaluating my relationship with the brand, basing it off their willingness to accept accountability for something that should have never happened to begin with — & the actions I am expecting to see them take to protect children,” she concluded.
The ritzy fashion company issued a short apology about the incident.
“We sincerely apologize for any offense our holiday campaign may have caused. Our plush bear bag should have been featured with children in this campaign,” the company said.
It also filed a lawsuit claiming $25 million in damages against production company North Six and set designer Nicholas Des Jardins over the controversy.
The photographer said he had received hate messages and threats over the ads but claimed that he had no control over what subjects were photographers or any control over the set.
As usual for a commercial shooting, the direction of the campaign and the choice of the objects displayed are not in the hands of the photographer,” said Gabriele Galimberti.
Here’s more about the Balenciaga controversy:
Balenciaga pulls controversial ad
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