Christine Haveford
Rihanna has responded to an offensive ad on the social media app Snapchat.
It appeared to make light of the fact that Chris Brown physically assaulted her in 2009.
Snapchat promoted the game called “Would You Rather?”, asking users whether they would rather “Slap Rihanna” or “Punch Chris Brown.”
Social media users were rightly angered by the ad.
“Is it just me, or is this ad that popped up on my Snapchat extremely tone deaf? Like what were they thinking with this?” one person tweeted, along with a screenshot of the offensive ad.
Chelsea Clinton was also among those who criticized the ad.
“Just awful. Awful that anyone thinks this is funny. Awful that anyone thinks this is appropriate. Awful that any company would approve this,” she wrote.
In response Rihanna posted a lengthy statement on her Instagram story, writing: “Now SNAPCHAT I know you already know you ain’t my fav app out there!”
Twitter
“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 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!”
“Shame on you.”
“Throw the whole app-oligy away.”
Twitter
After facing major backlash, Snapchat reportedly took down the ad, which had only been shown to U.S. users.
“The advert was reviewed and approved in error, as it violates our advertising guidelines. We immediately removed the ad last weekend, once we became aware,” Snapchat said in a statement.
“We are sorry that this happened.”
It hasn’t been a good year so far for Snapchat!
They angered the Snapchat community when they created an update nobody asked for.
Following that, the app was down 7% after Kylie Jenner posted a tweet saying she doesn’t open the app anymore.
The incident took place the night before the 2009 Grammys and forced Rihanna to cancel her scheduled performance at the awards show.
In 2015, she spoke to Vanity Fair about the pain she felt when people continued to bring up the assault long after it had happened.
“For me, and anyone who’s been a victim of domestic abuse, nobody wants to even remember it. Nobody even wants to admit it,” she said.
“So to talk about it and say it once, much less 200 times, is like … I have to be punished for it?”
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