When I read this story, I got so angry, I had to walk away from it for a while. Last week, an ad appeared on Snapchat that asked, “Would you rather Slap Rihanna (or) Punch Chris Brown”
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
Snapchat allows people to buy ads on their platform however all ads are subject to review under Snapchat’s terms of agreement, in which they emphasize that their key audience is teenagers and that, “advertisers are responsible for ensuring that their ads are suitable for Snapchatters ages 13+.” Snapchat stipulates that they prohibit, “Shocking, sensational, or disrespectful content.” So how the hell did this make it through? Not only does this go against everything in their advertising policy, it’s just such incredibly bad taste. The ad was taken down and Snapchat issued an apology by Monday morning, saying the ad had been, “reviewed and approved in error, as it violates our advertising guidelines.” Uh, YA’ THINK?! They went on to say, “We are sorry that this happened.” However, Rihanna, who is not a huge fan of Snapchat to begin with, didn’t want any of it. She took to rival Instagram to post this:
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 D 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.
That statement no longer appears on Rihanna’s Instagram, but some fans captured it before it was taken down. Many people tore up Twitter with their reactions, including Chelsea Clinton who responded:
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
I don’t need to go on about how wrong this is – it’s horrifying. Fortunately, there were repercussions. After Rihanna posted her response, investors pulled out, causing Snapchat’s stock to tumble almost 4%, which equals about $800 million. That should remind them to enforce their policies in the future. Remember, this latest tumble comes on the heels of Kylie Jenner causing a dip when she complained about the latest update.
I’m glad Snapchat took a hit for this and I hope they tighten up their review process as a result. But the truth is, this is all cold-comfort after the fact. Imagine how a victim of DM felt seeing this nonsense being posted for the amusement of others. I’ll bet it hurt more than any dollar amount could make up for. Shame on you, Snapchat.
Photo credit: Twitter and WENN Photos
Good. I hope they crash and burn.
The offense was horrible and the “apology” was worse.
The ad was taken down and Snapchat issued an apology by Monday morning, saying the ad had been, “reviewed and approved in error, as it violates our advertising guidelines.”
Did they even TRY and make it sound like it wasn’t a computer generated response?? You allowed an ad spoofing a victim of DM with the man who assaulted her and that’s the BEST you can offer as apology?? Total trash.
So this.
Also, they never apologized directly to Rihanna, or to victims of DV! I deleted my account and the app.
Rih is gorgeous. *sigh*
Lessons learned. Snapchat could disappear for all I care. That POS beat this woman to a pulp and nine years later, it has become some sort of a joke. Screw them. Don’t mess with Rihanna, because she will win, for herself and all victims of domestic violence. Long live the Queen….
Snapchat is obviously staffed by douchy bros.
I came here to say this. the ad was probably approved by group of douche bros at the table who found this hilarious. F- them
Good
In no particular order :
Riri in that black dress is everything!
Riri standing up for herself is everything!
Fuck Snapchat!
Red haired RiRi! 😍
Love RiRi in every picture here.
Love that she spoke out.
Snapchat was careless to the point of negligence. But how wonderful is it to see Rihanna come out the other side of a DV relationship and show her strength and resilience in such a public way. 💪🏿
I know some yeye( silly) people are gonna come on with some shitty line like, ‘but she went back to Chris Brown after he beat her and defended him’.
Good!
The fish rots from the head down. Just look at their pathetic douche king Evan Spiegel, and that’s all you need to know.
Was gonna say.
i never liked the app (maybe i am too old, but never thought it was userfriendly) and feel that there has been a push to Instagram also with younger people.
I loved Rihanna’s post – app-ology….so clever.
Facebook bought instagram and wanted to buy snapchat – which said no. so Facebook did what is does best, stole whatever snapchat was doing that worked and integrated it into their platform (instagram). for this reason alone so many companies are finding it hard to get VC because it is hard to answer – can Facebook copy that without legal repercussions?
so i have a soft spot for snapchat and do cringe when a whole company may go belly-up for a couple of idiot employees (i don’t think snapchat built the ad but their system approved it).
i am sure people have been fired and departments rearranged but damn, what a costly, stupid, mistake. and other clear example of why diversity matters – i firmly believe on a team with women and people of colour, this would not have been DOUBLY approved.
” firmly believe on a team with women and people of colour, this would not have been DOUBLY approved.”
I’m really not sure about that. Even right after the horrible assualt there were women going to bat for this piece of trash. There are SO many women who worship famous dudes regardless of the shit that they’ve done. Because they think it’s the woman’s fault, or that it would never happen to them. CB has a loud group of people who idolize him, so I really don’t think it’d be a guarentee that it wouldn’t have been approved with more women and POC on the team. It’s definitely LESS likely, but there are still a lot of women who hate women.
Horrible indeed. Snap chat should make a major donation to a domestic violence fund and that skinny Chihuahua who runs it should grovel in public.
Hey, let’s not talk about Chihuahua like that! What have they done to deserve that^^?
True. I was only being metaphorical. Sorry little doggies!
After they make that donation, I’d love to see them publish a list of the idiots who actually chose “slap Rihanna” in that scenario.
Rihanna’s response is so great.
I’m going to have to buy some Fenty Beauty as tribute. What would be good for a postmenopausal woman with rosacea who looks clownish in anything strong or dramatic?
The lipstick called Madame is great.
Thanks! Will check it out. / Just did … Ma’damn. LOL. Great red, but that’s strong for me…will look for more of a neutral. They have a couple of nudes and a dusty rose. Hope it doesn’t come on/stay too dry. Can’t do that at this point!
I’ve heard great things about the foundation and it apparently has a really wide, diverse color selection. It’s on my list to try but I have to work through some of the foundations I already own first. I’m a bit of a makeup junkie.
There ya go. No one effs with Rob and lives to tell it. The bit about her not having many feelings was epic, and so was the app-ology thing.
What I don’t get is why she did the dirty delete? Call someone out then delete it? Why??? She was 100% right.
I don’t think she deleted it, she made an InstaStory (?) and they automatically disappear after a while.
Stories on Instagram are visible for 24 hours only. The post disappeared once the 24 hours were up.
It was an instagram story..that doesn’t stay more than 24hrs
yes… instastory – basically snapchat (or should i say Facebook stealing from snapchat). it’s quite poetic she used that. <3
United PR group – man, what are we going to do now to take the heat off after that last doggie debacle????
Snapchap – Hold my Tide pod.
I’m willing to bet that the douches reviewing the ads had no idea that this one could somehow be offensive and tasteless.
That’s very good that Rihanna spoke up. I’ve never liked Snapchat, now I dislike it even more.
Between this and Facebook selling our data to that firm I deleted a bunch of apps. I cannot stand when companies act like they don’t have enough money to hire people to make sure this crap does not happen.
I’m so close to deleting twitter but I follow so many activists on there currently.
It is definitely starting to feel like social media isn’t worth it anymore. Not much positive to counter all the negatives lately. Maybe it is time for some upgrade and a new company with better safeguards and censors. Someone creative should consider it. I might actually get a personal account if that was the case but as is nope. Too many headaches and drama.
What were they thinking? It’s good that they got called out though.
In that last pic she looks fabulous. I like everything but the necklace.
I don’t have snapchat, is an stupid app rhar I don’t understand wheel it’s functionality, a good places for vacuous people
Snapchat is the worst. I refuse to get one. I’m glad Rih is standing up for herself and I’m also glad it’s taking a drop due to something of importance, rather than a tweet bitching about the new updates
I’ve never downloaded Snapchat, it definitely seemed to me like a kids app w all those silly filters. But great message to send to kids (who are much younger than 13).
And OF COURSE those who “review the ads” prior are douche-bros, did we forget who the creator of Snapchat is???? Douche bros in training are still out there high 5ing this mess
I hope Mark Z and Facebook are not gloating over Snapchat losing all that money, they have their own problems.
The scandal regarding misusing personal data of Facebook users has caused investors to dump their shares. Mark has lost 3.8 billion dollars so far. Facebook may be in for a hard fall
Good!
Sorry for being ignorant, could someone please explain?
Although I do like the Snapchat filters more than instastory, I barely ever use Snapchat anymore, especially after the annoying update.
The ad was tasteless. What was the point anyways? It’s not an impossible choice to choose between slapping Rihanna and punching Chris Brown – who the f would choose to slap RhiRhi (other than Chris Brown)
I kept on wondering if celebitchy was gonna cover this.