Two Australian men have taken to filming themselves harassing Balenciaga retail workers in the wake of the company’s recent ad campaign.
Two Australian men, Lachlan Kavanagh and Dale Farmilo, who have been radicalized by the far-right American media apparatus, have taken to harassing retail workers in the wake of the company’s latest advertising campaign.
The campaign in discussion has come under question as it shows children in the advertising image with bears dressed in bondage outfits. Another ad had documents detailing a court case covering child abuse off to the side of the child.
The ads have since spurred a wave of satanic panic that has now reached Australia, as people like Kavanagh and Farmilo use it as an excuse to berate minimum wage retail workers.
“How do you guys feel about working for a company that openly supports child abuse? How do you feel about that?” Kavanagh asks two employees as he walks up to the counter.
“No views on child abuse whatsoever?” Kavanagh asks.
“If that was my kid, f**k that would be terrible bro.”
Farmilo then chimed in from behind the camera.
“I know if I was working for a company that openly endorsed this stuff, I would be looking for a new job, guys.”
The two then turned their holy justification for vengeance to the customers in the store, asking one customer if they knew that Balenciaga was, “involved in exploiting children.”
“Not before,” the man replies.
One customer then turned their camera back onto the two men.
“You think it’s good yeah? You think it’s good?” Mr Farmilo asks the man.
“It’s good that this company supports child abuse?”
Filled with righteous indignation, Kavanagh labeled everyone in the store as, “fucking cowards.”
“Look at them. All walking away when we are talking to them, can’t answer questions. You should all be ashamed of yourselves,” he says.
Mr Farmilo said it was “despicable stuff”, before the customer turns to him and says, “This is very Christian of you.”
“Well it is, yeah. Exposing the works of darkness is Christian mate. We judge righteous, that’s it, we judge righteous,” he says.
“I’m Catholic and I love it,” the customer respondend.
“You love it? You are not Catholic, you do not support the words of God. You need to repent and turn back to him,” Farmilo replied.
Kavanagh posted the video with this caption:
“Had to let @balenciaga employees know, if they don’t quit there [sic] jobs and stop supporting child abuse they’ll be on a one-way trip to hell. We can’t let child abuse become normalised.”
While many of their followers cheered them on, once the video reached a wider audience, backlash ensued.
“Wow, so edgy … you know this is harassment right?” one person commented.
“These are retail workers … just people trying to get by – what do you expect them to do, quit? Will you pay their bills?”
“Bro your [sic] picking on some worker. Chill man. They have to make a living. Kick back boys. Go after the king, not the pawn,” one person said.
“OMG people having a go at retail workers are the biggest s**theads. They are on minimum wage and probably got bills to pay – it’s not them,” another said.
One added: “Aussie bogans acting the way Aussie bogans do.”
Kavanagh’s page is full of far-right talking points that one can find any day on the average Fox News broadcast.
Some of the videos on Kavanagh’s social media include him complaining about “fat, chubby children”, being force-fed “a diet of woke nonsense” from Netflix, and how companies like Virgin are trying to “make men into p**sies so they can control us easier” by allowing male staff members to wear skirts.
“I have had a lot of people come on to my profile asking why I would go into Balenciaga and why I would confront the staff members,” he said.
“This is such a r****ded question. It answers itself. If you don’t know why I would go into Balenciaga and question the staff on why they are working there and if they are aware of what’s been going on, well then that’s on you.
“You’re the r****d, not me.”
