--- title: Balenciaga's Dystopian Newscast Taps Into Our Darkest Fears description: Avant garde high fashion brand Balenciaga taps into our darkest fears for an advertising campaign disguised as a dystopian newscast. canonical: https://time.com/5786030/balenciaga-dystopian-newscast/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2020-02-18T22:51:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:01:18.652Z og:title: Balenciaga's Dystopian Newscast Taps Into Some Pretty Dark Fears og:description: Too close for comfort og:url: https://time.com/5786030/balenciaga-dystopian-newscast/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb77776900b3b1c69/698a0a6522fb851efce2a9bf/balenciaga-dystopian-newscast.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: Balenciaga : Runway - Paris Fashion Week - Womenswear Spring Summer 2020 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Balenciaga's Dystopian Newscast Taps Into Some Pretty Dark Fears twitter:description: Too close for comfort twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb77776900b3b1c69/698a0a6522fb851efce2a9bf/balenciaga-dystopian-newscast.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Balenciaga's Ad Campaign Is a Terrifyingly Stressful Dystopian Newscast > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Feb 18, 2020 10:51 PM UTC  PARIS, FRANCE - SEPTEMBER 29: A model walks the runway during the Balenciaga Ready to Wear Spring/Summer 2020 fashion show as part of Paris Fashion Week on September 29, 2019 in Paris, France. (Photo by Victor VIRGILE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images) PARIS, FRANCE - SEPTEMBER 29: A model walks the runway during the Balenciaga Ready to Wear Spring/Summer 2020 fashion show as part of Paris Fashion Week on September 29, 2019 in Paris, France. (Photo by Victor VIRGILE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images) Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images—Victor VIRGILE/Gamma-Rapho  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Feb 18, 2020 10:51 PM UTC Between [global warming](https://time.com/5709100/halt-climate-change-300-billion/), [precarious international politics](https://time.com/5785400/boris-johnson-andrew-sabisky-race/), and the stress of [impending presidential elections](https://time.com/5782619/bernie-sanders-2020-democratic-frontrunner-new-hampshire/), there’s a lot to worry about in this current moment, a feeling that [Balenciaga](https://time.com/5475448/balenciaga-office-furniture/) creative director Demna Gvasalia appears to tapping into with his latest advertising campaign for the high fashion campaign. Balenciaga dropped a series of images featuring models as politicians running for office and a very stressful video of a dystopian evening newscast where water is disappearing, the planets are realigning, and all of the newscasters and subjects speak monotone gibberish over an ominous soundtrack, while dressed in head-to-toe Balenciaga. The effect is futuristic and a little disturbing, but fans of Gvasalia’s avant garde work at Balenciaga know that the Georgian designer often [deals in discomfort to promote his collections](https://time.com/5072393/ridiculous-fashion-items/). At the house’s SS20 runway show, models walked to a haunting musical mix while in a severe all-blue room that many interpreted as a nod to the E.U. See Balenciaga’s post-apocalyptic newscast below. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5786030/balenciaga-dystopian-newscast/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5786030/balenciaga-dystopian-newscast/"},"headline":"Balenciaga's Ad Campaign Is a Terrifyingly Stressful Dystopian Newscast","datePublished":"2020-02-18T22:51:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:01:18.652Z","description":"Too close for comfort","url":"https://time.com/5786030/balenciaga-dystopian-newscast/","keywords":["Newsfeed","fashion","onetime","clickmonsters"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb77776900b3b1c69/698a0a6522fb851efce2a9bf/balenciaga-dystopian-newscast.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb77776900b3b1c69/698a0a6522fb851efce2a9bf/balenciaga-dystopian-newscast.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Balenciaga : Runway - Paris Fashion Week - Womenswear Spring Summer 2020","caption":"Balenciaga : Runway - Paris Fashion Week - Womenswear Spring Summer 2020","creditText":"Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images—Victor VIRGILE/Gamma-Rapho","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5786030/balenciaga-dystopian-newscast/","name":"Balenciaga's Ad Campaign Is a Terrifyingly Stressful Dystopian Newscast"}}]}] ```