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Axed Balenciaga Campaign Showcased Book About Artist Who Paints Castrated Kids

Screenshot/YouTube/Balenciaga

Melanie Wilcox Contributor
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Balenciaga has axed another ad campaign that included a book about a Belgian artist whose work features castrated toddlers, the New York Post reported.

The campaign, which was scheduled to run in the spring of 2023, showed French actress Isabelle Huppert posing in a Manhattan office with books in the background. One of those books was about Belgian painter Michaël Borremans, whose work often includes children.

A blog from the David Zwirner gallery in Hong Kong, where Borremans’ new work “Fire from the Sun” is being shown, said the paintings being shown depict toddlers “engaged in playful but mysterious acts with sinister overtones and insinuations of violence.” (RELATED: Kim Kardashian Responds To Child Porn Balenciaga Ad)

The luxury fashion brand removed the photo that has Borremans’ book in the background after it came under fire for a separate ad campaign that featured children holding teddy bears that were dressed in BDSM-inspired outfits. Other marketing photos included printouts of a Supreme Court decision dealing with child phonography.

The brand apologized, then filed a $25 million lawsuit against the producers of the ad campaign, North Six, Inc., and set designer Nicholas Des Jardins and his eponymous company.

“The first campaign, the gift collection campaign, featured children with plush bear bags dressed in what some have labelled BDMS-inspired outfits. Our plush bear bags and the gift collection should not have been featured with children,” Balenciaga said in a statement.