Agree. I found it to be alarming, offensive, and smacking of outrageous conspiracy theories surrounding well known Jewish figures. Especially if a particular post did not know they were Jewish, (which indicates to me how pervasive and sneaky the tropes are), to interject them all here in this balenciaga mess, smacks of the same kind of thoughtlessness that we attribute to Kering Group.
I am not solely referring to the one post quoted by
@jellyv. Several contributors to this thread have made general disparaging remarks about elites, woke media (NYT; WaPo; etc) and nebulous wealthy behind the scenes powers — all of which are infamous antisemitic tropes — that the posts have connected to pedophilia; “pizzagate is real” statement (made by the same poster); and now Balenciaga WTF.
ETA : To be more specific, persecution of ‘people in control and holding a large amount of financial assets’ has been an ignorant and racist trope since the Middle Ages and culminating against the Jews in WWII. I sincerely question anyone who claims ignorance of these tropes (starting with Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice) onward. Tagging
@trippinonsunshine bc she posted a query about antisemitic tropes.
ETA : I find the balenciaga campaign totally offensive; however someone else posted a query as to how the suits could have approved it; questioned what the brief could be; or asked how the brand could begin to apologize. I would hazard a guess that a p*ss poor explanation might run like this:
We made a serious and offensive error in judgment. We are a brand known for being controversial and edgy, and thought this ad would be no worse than Thierry Muglier Virgin No. 1, Scent of a Murder. The juxtaposition of a child, representing human innocence, being confronted or surrounded by a tawdry and sinful world of salacious [albeit criminal] temptation, seemed like a novel way of presenting our latest damn bag. In other words, the idiotic balenciaga apology would be, oops, we were trying for louche fashion and wandered into seemingly casual acceptance if not active promotion of criminal pedophilia.
To tie my comment together, just as this parody of an apology is ridiculous, so are some of these antisemitism tropes, that didn’t just lead to a crappy ad campaign, but to WWII genocide.