Rihanna hopped on social media this week to call them out for their highly offensive Snapchat advertisement for the mobile app, “Would You Rather.”
In the ad, the question is asked whether users would rather “slap Rihanna” or “punch Chris Brown. The question, of course, is in reference to the 2009 incident in which Brown assaulted Rihanna – an event both artists are working hard to move on from.
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 immediately apologized for the ad. “This advertisement is disgusting and never should have appeared on our service,” they said in a statement. “We are so sorry we made the terrible mistake of allowing it through our review process. We are investigating how that happened so that we can make sure it never happens again.”
Rihanna callout out the app a second time, saying:
“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!” the singer wrote. “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. You let us down! Shame on you. Throw the whole app-oligy away.”
— Roc Nation (@RocNation) March 15, 2018
Member’s of Riri’s Navy are now threatening to leave the app. As one of the world’s biggest stars, this could be a crippling blow to the already struggling social media platform.
