👉 Background: Balenciaga is the luxury fashion brand that launched back in 1919 in San Sebastian, Spain. Think: ready-to-wear outfits, footwear, handbags, and accessories - at a very premium price tag.

👉 What happened: These days, it’s owned by a large company called Kering, which also owns Gucci, Alexander McQueen and Yves Saint Laurent. Balenciaga recently launched a new campaign that showed children holding teddy bears… and the teddy bear was in bondage gear. Yes, that bondage gear.

👉 What else: Next minute the #cancelbalenciaga hashtag has had 25 million views on TikTok. So Balenciaga withdrew the ad pretty quickly but not before major celebs like Kim Kardashian said they would “re-evaluate” their relationship with the brand.

What's the key learning?

💡Advertising that is intended to cause a shock is a high-stakes game to play. Studies show that content that causes a shock is more likely to cut through the noise and get the attention of consumers.

💡So while these campaigns can be an effective way to grab that attention, they come with an enormous degree of risk. A common problem for brands like Balenciaga is that each and every ad campaign needs to be bigger and louder than the last.

💡In the past, Balenciaga has built their brand on cultural provocation (see here, here and here). But clearly this campaign took things too far. And with celebs reconsidering their relationship with the brand, it might be time for Balenciaga to try on something new.

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