Balenciaga is under criticism for posting pictures of kids with "Bondage" teddy bears.

 

Balenciaga's most recent childrenswear advertising campaign has drawn a lot of criticism.

The Spanish fashion label, which made news lately for severing relations with Kanye West over his antisemitic remarks, is currently trending for all the wrong reasons. Social media users are up in arms over a recent picture session that showed kids holding teddy bears that were clad in fishnet and leather harnesses. A Twitter user posted pictures from the photo shoot on November 19 and commented, "Balenciaga is utilizing photos of young girls playing with teddy bears while they are clothed in bondage gear on their website. Lovely.”

A court document allegedly appeared in another image posted on the Balenciaga website and related to child pornography laws. The disputed document "reaffirmed the constitutionality of The Protect ACT, which forbids the publication of sexually explicit images of children even if the content is not viewed by some as sexually explicit or pornographic," according to ABC7 News.

The following day, a verified account with more than 500,000 followers drew greater attention to the ads. On November 20, @shoeonhead tweeted, "The company 'Balenciaga' just conducted an umm... strange... photoshoot for their new products recently which featured a very purposefully badly camouflaged court paperwork about 'virtual child porn'." Typical fare.

The paper "contains an excerpt from the US Supreme Court judgment in United States v. Williams, which upheld part of a federal child pornography legislation," Twitter added in a reply by "readers" to Shoe's post.

Despite the negative feedback, Balenciaga is still posting on Instagram despite having no longer have a Twitter account. The brand's most recent Instagram post was deluged with comments referencing the Supreme Court decision "Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition," which dealt with the Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996. Since then, there have been few comments on the post.