Balenciaga apologizes for featuring children holding bondage bears in the advertisement

Balenciaga, the luxury fashion house has apologized for featuring children in its latest advertising campaign, where they were cuddling teddy bears dressed in bondage gear.

The images were shot by photographer Gabriele Galimberti and linked to the Balenciaga Gift Shop campaign featuring young children dressed in the Balenciaga Kids line. The campaign iterates on the series toy story of the artist, it was an exploration of what people receive and collect as gifts, according to the original press release last week.

But it was seen that there was an angry response to the images on social media which were shot featuring children with plush teddy bear bags dressed in something that looked like BDSM-inspired outfits. One child was even pictured with an assortment of empty wine glasses.

On Tuesday, Balenciaga posted an apology on Instagram announcing that the campaign had been removed. The statement said that the company, sincerely apologize for the offense the holiday campaign has caused. The company further said that in the campaign, their plush bear bags should not have been featured with children. The company also immediately removed the campaign from all platforms.