Balenciaga called out again for its new ad featuring kids posing with toys in bondage gear

Luxury fashion brand Balenciaga is under the line of fire on social media again. This time for its latest advertisement that features two young girls holding stuffed animals dressed in what appears to be bondage gear.

That's not all, an eagle-eyed fashion critic has highlighted another photo from the same advertisement shoot that shows documents tucked under a Balenciaga handbag. When one zooms into the photo, the documents appear to be a court case about child pornography.

YouTuber June Lapine, who goes by the name Shoe0nHead on social media, called out the bizarre images on Twitter.

“The brand ‘Balenciaga’ just did a uh … interesting … photo-shoot for their new products recently which included a very purposely poorly hidden court document about ‘virtual child porn’. Normal stuff,” she wrote.

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Social media sleuths were quick to do a background check and it appears that the document was from Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition, a 2002 US Supreme Court case which struck down a ban on “virtual” child pornography.

At the time, the court found that the Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996 violated the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech because no children were harmed in the production of computer-generated images.

This isn't the first time that the fashion house has made headlines for its bizarre products. It has earlier been called out for selling worn-out shoes.

The latest campaign also has young models dressed in Balenciaga apparel, holding plush toys that contrasted with the horrifying bondage get-ups.

While the brand has not directly respionded to the outrage, it has removed the images of the two girls from Instagram.
Earlier this month, Balenciaga joined a long line of companies fleeing the social media platform amid ongoing chaos since Elon Musk’s takeover.