Getty Images for Coachella<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nBalenciaga faced a firestorm of criticism for its own earlier controversial ad campaign, and the photographer who shot the images, Gabriele Galimberti, feared for his life as death threats poured in. Earlier this month, Balenciaga’s creative director Demna addressed the BDSM ad scandal, which was torched online with normalizing sexual fetishization and abuse of children.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to personally apologize for the wrong artistic choice of concept for the gifting campaign with the kids and I take my responsibility,\u201d the 41-year-old wrote. \u201cIt was inappropriate to have kids promote objects that had nothing to do with them.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs much as I would sometimes like to provoke a thought through my work, I would NEVER have an intention to do that with such an awful subject as child abuse that I condemn. Period,\u201d Demna continued. \u201cI need to learn from this, listen and engage with child protection organizations to know how I can contribute and help on this terrible subject.\u201d<\/p>\n
The fashion house pulled the ads, apologized and vowed internal and external investigations. It also filed a $25 million lawsuit against the ad’s producers that was later dropped.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n