Rihanna Blasts Snapchat Ad That Made Light Of Chris Brown Assaulting Her
Rihanna is outraged by an ad on Snapchat that downplayed abuse by referencing Chris Brown’s 2009 conviction for assaulting her while they were dating.
The ad, which is for a game called “Would You Rather,” asks users if they would rather “slap Rihanna” or “punch Chris Brown.”
The social media platform told BBC News that it published the ad “in error” and removed it last weekend, as soon as it was made aware of its mistake. Snapchat has a review process for ads that states it will not publish ads that feature “shocking, sensational, or disrespectful content.”
“We are sorry that this happened,” Snapchat said.
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, however, isn’t accepting the apology. The singer posted an Instagram story Thursday that said “Throw the whole app-oligy away” in response to Snapchat.
“I’d love to call it ignorance, but I know you ain’t that dumb!” she wrote. “You spent 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!”
Her statement was shared on Twitter by Gennette Cordova:
Rihanna responding to Snapchat's ad. I can't believe they did this. pic.twitter.com/TpHQIXTm4j
— Gennette Cordova (@GNCordova) March 15, 2018
After Rihanna called the company out, Snapchat apologized again, saying the ad was “disgusting.”
The insensitive ad came to the public’s attention on Monday when Twitter user Royce Mann screenshot and posted it to the social media platform. It didn’t take long for other users to express their outrage ― including activists Brittany Packnett and Chelsea Clinton.
I know that social media ads go through an approval process from the platform.
This means @Snapchat approved an ad that makes light of domestic violence.
The update ain’t the only thing that’s wack over there, friends. https://t.co/PmbJn4zCel— Brittany Packnett (@MsPackyetti) March 12, 2018
Just awful. Awful that anyone thinks this is funny. Awful that anyone thinks this is appropriate. Awful that any company would approve this. Thank you Brittany for calling this out.
— Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) March 12, 2018
Following Rihanna’s response, shares for Snap Inc., Snapchat’s parent company, dropped nearly 5 percent, Bloomberg reported.
The “Wild Thoughts” singer isn’t the only celebrity whose star power has influenced the company’s value.
In February, the company dropped in value after Kylie Jenner tweeted, “sooo does anyone else not open Snapchat anymore.”
“Would You Rather” did not immediately respond to a request for comment from HuffPost.
This post has been updated to note Snapchat’s latest apology and the drop of the company’s stock price.
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.