(Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for The New School)
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Yesterday College Candy wrote about Snapchat’s distasteful Would You Rather advertisement making light of Rihanna being a survivor of domestic violence. To add fuel to the fire the Snpachat ad, that pops up in between tapping through stories, was asking users to vote if they would rather slap Rihanna or punch Chris Brown. Brown was Rihanna’s ex-boyfriend who abused her.
The Rihanna’s domestic violence abuse was very public. After the 2009 Grammy’s the then couple got in an argument that led to Brown punching and choking Rihanna while in his Lamborghini. Images of her beaten face leaked to the public. Snapchat users were quick to call out the apps terrible ad.
Wow @Snapchat has lost their god damn mind who ever over there at that app company need to be fired. For putting this ad up talking about would u rather Slap @rihanna or punch @chrisbrown like the president over there @Snapchat need to reliquary this person who put this out pic.twitter.com/iusBs2waqs
— ♒️Sheree’Jenell Moore⚡️ (@NsyncFangurl) March 13, 2018
Is it just me, or is this ad that popped up on my Snapchat extremely tone deaf? Like what were they thinking with this? pic.twitter.com/7kP9RHcgNG
— Royce Mann (@TheRoyceMann) March 12, 2018
Rihanna has now commented on Snapchat’s deplorable ad and it’s savage. She posted a lengthy statement on her Instagram story.
Now Snapchat I know you already know you ain’t my fav app out there! But I’m just trying to figure out what the point was with this mess! I’d love to call it ignorance, but I know you ain’t that dumb! You spend money to animate something that would intentionally bring shame to DV victims and made a joke of it!!! This isn’t about my personal feelings, cause I don’t have much of them…but all the women, children and men that have been victims of DV in the past and especially the ones who haven’t made it out yet…you let us down! Shame on you. Throw the whole app-oligy away.
Rihanna responding to Snapchat's ad. I can't believe they did this. pic.twitter.com/TpHQIXTm4j
— Gennette Cordova (@GNCordova) March 15, 2018
Snapchat’s “app-oligy” isn’t all that great. In a statement to Mashable, they said, “The ad was reviewed and approved in error, as it violates our advertising guidelines. We immediately removed it last weekend, once we became aware. We are sorry that this happened.”
But this a pretty glaring mistake to make. For them to even approve an ad that promotes violence is not okay, but then to have it be centered around an abuser and survivor of domestic abuse is just unacceptable.
