Luxury label Balenciaga has drawn widespread scorn in China over promotional material for a new handbag range.
In celebration of yet another Chinese Valentines Day (QiXi), Kering-owned Balenciaga has released four limited-edition bags of its Hourglass collection on Tmall.
Graffitied on the bag are Chinese phrases such as “He loves me”, “I love you”, “You love me” and “I love me”. Each of these bags sell for US$2000.
The campaign is stylised with an amateur Photoshop aesthetic – ones referenced to the Chinese “senior pictures” (similar to the likes of India’s infamous WhatsApp ‘Good Morning’ images), where a stock image is paired with a bold Microsoft Art text. The Balenciaga QiXi campaign features models in front of a stock image backdrop with pixelated Valentines images Photoshopped on top.
The dated image has received backlash online with netizens calling the brand out for its gaudy – and even insulting – designs. A hashtag shortly surfaced not long after its debut, with #BalenciagaChineseValentinesCampaignisTacky (self-translation), drawing more than 220,000 discussions and 180 million views on Weibo. Another hashtag trending on social media was #BalenciagaInsultsChina.
The Balenciaga backlash is yet another example of failure by a Western brand designing limited-edition exclusives, specifically geared towards the Chinese market, but getting the pitch and tone all wrong.
With the continuing focus on China and desperate attempts to win more of their wallet share, many local consumers are shifting their spending towards domestic labels with ‘more authentic’ intentions.