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Nov 29, 2022 · New York CNN — Luxury fashion house Balenciaga is suing the production company behind its Spring 2023 ad campaign after paperwork about a Supreme Court ruling on child pornography was...
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Nov 28, 2022 · On Nov. 25, Balenciaga filed papers in New York court initiating a $25 million lawsuit against the production company North Six and Nicholas Des Jardins, who designed the set for the Garde-Robe...
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- "Blown out of context"
French fashion brand Balenciaga has filed a $25 million lawsuit against a production company it hired to produce one of two advertising campaigns that have drawn condemnation online.
The ad in question ran on Instagram and showed a purse on top of a document-strewn desk. One document in the background was a partially visible page from a court ruling related to child pornography. Balenciaga on Monday confirmed the document was from a 2008 Supreme Court case, United States v. Williams, which held it is not unconstitutional to forbid the promotion of child pornography.
According to the company's lawsuit, Balenciaga hired independent production company North Six and set designer Nicholas Des Jardins, both of New York, to create the ad for the company's spring/summer 2023 collection. The North Six ad "included certain documents in the campaign photographs, including an excerpt from a court decision upholding a criminal prohibition against child pornography" without Balenciaga's knowledge, claims the suit, filed late Friday in state court in Manhattan.
A representative from North Six confirmed with CBS MoneyWatch Monday that the company managed the ad shoot that included the court document, but didn't comment further.
Last week, the ad including the page from the Supreme Court case circulated online at the same time as another Balenciaga campaign — not produced by North Six — which featured children holding teddy bear bags dressed in bondage-style garb. A social media firestorm erupted over the images, with critics saying the ads normalized child abuse. The teddy bear campaign even caused reality-star-turned-entrepreneur Kim Kardashian to reevaluate her relationship with Balenciaga, she said on Sunday.
Balenciaga released a statement on Monday describing the images as the result of two concurrent but separate ad campaigns, and apologizing for both.
Balenciaga is suing North Six for "extensive damages" it says the ad caused.
It claims that "members of the public, including the news media, have falsely and horrifically associated Balenciaga with the repulsive and deeply disturbing subject of the court decision."
Balenciaga last week deleted all of its Instagram posts, with the brand saying the teddy bear bags "should not have been featured with children in this campaign."
A spokesperson representing Des Jardins said Balenciaga was well aware of how the finished "office environment" ad would look.
"Everyone from Balenciaga was on the shoot and was present on every shot and worked on the edit of every image in post production," Des Jardins' spokesman said. "This has all been blown out of context and we are hiring a legal team to support Nick on this which is why no one has commented yet."
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified North Six as the producer and Des Jardins as the set designer of the teddy bear bag ads as well as the "office environment" ad. In fact, North Six and Des Jardins only worked on the "office environment" ad.
- khristopher.brooks@paramount.com
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Dec 7, 2023 · The History of Balenciaga: Groundbreaking Couture, Controversies, ‘Cancellation’ and Demna’s Reinvention. Balenciaga's 2022 "cancellation" isn't the first time the brand has been in hot ...
Balenciaga SA (/ b ə ˌ l ɛ n s i ˈ ɑː ɡ ə / bə-LEN-see-AH-gə) is a luxury fashion house founded in 1919 by the Spanish couturier Cristóbal Balenciaga in San Sebastián, Spain. Balenciaga produces ready-to-wear footwear, handbags, and accessories, and licenses its name and branding to Coty for fragrances.
- 1,325 (2019)
Nov 28, 2022 · Meredith Clark. November 28, 2022 · 4 min read. Balenciaga has filed a lawsuit against the production company responsible for a controversial ad campaign in which court documents from a Supreme...
WHAT WE DO. For several years, Balenciaga has committed to reducing its footprint within the design and production processes of its collections, as well as its offices, events, stores, and packaging, for example by introducing more responsible, recycled, and upcycled materials in lieu of others.
