In August 2021, a set of photographs supposedly showing a Desigual backpack decorated with the words “I Want More Sex” on sale in the children’s section at a Burlington store went viral on social media:
There are several suspicious aspects of these social media posts. For one, we haven’t encountered any posts with firsthand information about these images nor any specific details about where this photograph was taken. Rather, the social media posts making this claim typically rehash information that the users received from friends. For example, here’s the text of the above-displayed post with over 30,000 shares:
“One of my friends was shopping at Burlington for a backpack for her daughter. She thought this looked cute…until she looked closer. This is NOT okay! Why is this even being sold in stores, let alone the kids backpack section?”
It’s also odd that this backpack doesn’t appear to have a sales tag, while the other bags on display do. We have not found this product advertised on Burlington’s website, nor any of its social media pages. It’s possible that someone placed this adult-themed bag among children’s bags and then took a photograph in order to stir up a controversy. Several companies have been accused of pushing pedophilia (take, for example, Wayfair) based on similarly scant evidence.
While we couldn’t find this item listed on Burlington’s website, the company responded to social media posts by saying that they would have the product removed:
“We appreciate you bringing this to our attention. We are partnering with our store operations team members to have this product removed from our stores. Again, thank you for making us aware.”
Desigual, a fashion company from Barcelona, Spain, has also weighed in on this controversy. The fashion company said that these backpacks are designed for adults, not children, and that they were working with a distributor to see how this bag ended up in the wrong section.
“This product is not for kids, but for adults, and therefore it belongs to the adult section. We are sorry that it got misplaced. We are talking to the distributor to fix it asap.”
Desigual elaborated to us in an emailed statement:
We would like to sincerely apologize to anyone who has been offended by the design of this backpack.
Please allow us to explain the misunderstanding.
This backpack belongs to our Woman collection, and it is definitely not part of our Kids collection.
Our Kids collection does not currently include any backpacks, as can be seen on our website: https://www.desigual.com/en_US/kids-clothes/
Since this did not happen at any of our stores, but at Burlington, which is a multi brand store that is totally independent from us), our team has contacted them to correct the mistake.
Our designs are intended to make people feel good, so we would like to thank you for letting us know about this situation and for helping us to fix it.
For Desigual, it is important to listen to our customers and people engaged with our brand and be respectful towards them, while we are keeping committed to our values such as authenticity, diversity and freedom to express ourselves.
We reached out to Burlington and will update this article if more information becomes available.
‘I Want More Sex’ Desigual Backpack Designed for Adults, Not Kids
Source: Kapit Pinas
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