Rihanna calls out Snapchat for tone-deaf ad that made light of domestic violence

Rihanna is not happy with Snap for the tone-deaf ad the company let run on Snapchat. A couple of days ago, an advertisement on Snap appeared that alluded to Chris Brown’s violent assault on Rihanna back in 2009.

The advertisement, which was for a game called “Would You Rather,” asked if people would “rather slap Rihanna or punch Chris Brown.” Snap has since removed the advertisement, but Rihanna today said she’s concerned about the message it sends to other survivors of domestic violence.

Here’s what she said in an 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 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.

In a statement to TechCrunch, Snap apologized for the ad ever going up in the first place. When directly asked about Rihanna’s message, Snap called the advertisement “disgusting.”

“We are so sorry we made the terrible mistake of allowing it through our review process,” a Snap spokesperson said. “We are investigating how that happened so that we can make sure it never happens again.”

Snap has also since blocked the maker of “Would You Rather” from advertising on its platform. On Monday, when people first noticed the ad, Snap said it was reviewed but approved in error.

“We immediately removed the ad last weekend, once we became aware,” Snap said earlier this week.

This massive fail by Snap comes shortly after both Snapchat and Instagram had to remove their Giphy GIF sticker features after a racist GIF appeared as an option.

To be clear, this ad never should have been approved in the first place, according to the company’s advertising policies. Here’s Rihanna’s Instagram post:

from TechCrunch http://ift.tt/2pdKdRG