Luxury fashion house Balenciaga is suing the production company behind its Spring 2023 ad campaign after paperwork regarding a Supreme Court ruling on child pornography was identified in one of the images.
The brand, already facing conviction over a different campaign involving children, filed the lawsuit on Friday in the New York State Supreme Court, seeking at least $25 million in damages from production company North Six, Inc., of set designer Nicholas Des Jardins and his company.
Balenciaga has hired North Six and Des Jardins to develop and produce its spring 2023 campaign, according to the court subpoena.
He said the campaign, which featured actress Nicole Kidman and model Bella Hadid, among others, was intended to replicate a corporate environment, with shots taken in an “office space in Manhattan.”
On a messy desk featured in an image, however, the clutter visibly included a page from the 2008 decision of the Supreme Court in the United States v. Williams, a case “which confirms the promotion of child pornography as illegal and not protected by freedom of expression,” according to a statement Balenciaga provided to CNN on Monday.
The court document states that Balenciaga, which is owned by French luxury group Kering, was unaware of and did not authorize the inclusion of that particular paperwork.
In his statement to CNN, Balenciaga said that “all items included in this shooting were provided by a third party who confirmed in writing that these props were false office documents. They turned out to be actual legal documents, likely coming from the television footage.”
Balenciaga said in the subpoena that it believes the defendants’ “inexplicable acts and omissions were malevolent or, at the very least, extraordinarily reckless.”
The court filing alleges that, as a result of the defendants’ actions, “members of the public, including the media, falsely and horribly associated Balenciaga with the repulsive and deeply disturbing subject matter of the court’s decision.” North Six and Des Jardins, it says, must be held responsible for “all damages resulting from this false association”.
Amelia K. Brankov, attorney for Nicholas Des Jardins and his firm Nicholas Des Jardins LLC, said in an emailed statement to CNN that “there was certainly no malevolent scheme going on. As Balenciaga knows, several boxes of documents simply came from a halfway house as rental items.”
“In addition, Balenciaga representatives were present at the shoot, supervising it and handling papers and props,” Brankov’s statement continued, “and Des Jardins, as set designer, was not responsible for the selection of images from the shoot.”
A representative for North Six said the production company “had no creative input or control over the shoot. North Six was not on set during final arrangements.”
bad judgment
As it continues its own investigation into the matter, Balenciaga said it is taking responsibility for its lack of oversight and control of campaign footage.
“We are reinforcing the structures around our creative processes and validation steps. We want to ensure that new controls mark a pivot and prevent this from happening again,” he said in a statement. “Balenciaga reiterates its sincere apologies for the offense we have caused and extends its apologies to talent and partners.”
Balenciaga also addressed the widespread outrage and condemnation of another recent campaign that featured children cuddling teddy bears dressed in fetish gear.
“We strongly condemn child abuse; it was never our intention to include it in our narrative,” the company said. “Our teddy bear bags and Gift collection should not have been presented with children. This was a wrong choice by Balenciaga, combined with our failure to evaluate and validate the images. Responsibility for this rests solely with Balenciaga.”
Kim Kardashian, who was an ambassador for the brand, spoke out about the campaign on Sunday, after receiving a flood of messages from fans and commentators urging her to denounce the brand.
Kardashian said she is “re-evaluating” her working relationship with Balenciaga and that, as a mother, she was “shaken by the disturbing images”.
“Children’s safety should be held with the utmost consideration and any attempt to normalize child abuse of any kind should have no place in our society – period,” she told her 74.2 million Twitter followers.
Balenciaga apologized for the campaign last week, saying it had “immediately removed the campaign from all platforms”.
Photographer Gabriele Galimberti told CNN in a statement last week that directing and filming the teddy bear campaign was beyond his control.
“I am not in a position to comment (on) Balenciaga’s choices, but I must point out that I was in no way entitled to choose (sic) the products, or the models, or the combination thereof. The direction of the campaign and the shooting is not in the hands of the photographer.”
Both North Six and a representative for Nicholas Des Jardins LLC said they were not involved in the teddy bear campaign.
*Lianne Kolirin and Toyin Owoseje of CNN contributed to this story.
Source: CNN Brasil
A journalist with over 7 years of experience in the news industry, currently working at World Stock Market as an author for the Entertainment section and also contributing to the Economics or finance section on a part-time basis. Has a passion for Entertainment and fashion topics, and has put in a lot of research and effort to provide accurate information to readers.
