It’s All Fun and Games Until . . .

Teddy goes kinky

I suppose some FirstNerve readers found my Estée Lauder x Tom Ford piece a bit stuffy. So what if Ford ran a lot of vulgar perfume ads back in the day?

My answer: when Executive Chairman William P. Lauder and President/CEO Fabrizio Freda bloviate about being “honored” and “incredibly proud” of acquiring this guy’s fashion realm while ignoring his tasteless track record, they deserve to have their noses tweaked.

I bet Bill, Fab’io, and Tom are breathing a sigh of relief after this week’s Balenciaga brouhaha. [What did I miss?—Ed.] [The ads with kids holding Balenciaga bags in the form of BDSM-attired teddy bears.]

Balenciaga under fire over ‘creepy’ ads of kids with ‘bondage outfits’

Scrapped Balenciaga campaign featured book by painter whose works include castrated toddlers

Also in the mix is one Lotta Volkova.

Eeuuwww.

[Balenciaga is just a niche haute couture brand. What’s the big deal?—Ed.] [Their fragrances are produced by Coty which also does scents for Adidas, Calvin Klein, Gucci, Katy Perry, etc. And Coty is owned by JAB which owns, among other companies, Peets Coffee, Douwe Egberts, and Reckitt Benckiser (whose brands include Air Wick, Brasso, and, um, K-Y. These shenanigans are taking place under the umbrella of the biggest consumer products companies in the world.]

Maybe we can agree that the whole Tom Ford crotch-grabbing and parfum-flacon-on-vulva stuff was all just good fun among adults.

But teddy bears are children’s toys. Is it too much to ask that we leave children out of the grown-up games?