Following the massive backlash to Snapchat’s offensive “Would You Rather?” ad that asked users to choose between slapping Rihanna or punching Chris Brown, Snapchat has reached out to the National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV) and invited a member to join the app’s board. TMZ reports that a NNEDV representative confirmed the app contacted the network on Thursday.
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
The NNEDV rep said the role will be to educate Snapchat staff on domestic abuse and what is and isn’t appropriate to post regarding the issue.
Ads on Snapchat must be approved by the app, so the outrage is justified, since it likely passed through multiple people before being published on the app. “The advert was reviewed and approved in error, as it violates our advertising guidelines," Snapchat said in a statement about the incident. "We immediately removed the ad last weekend, once we became aware."
The ad, which was part of an interactive game, was immediately called out by users as insensitive and tone-deaf, made only worse by the former couple’s troubling history of domestic violence. The real condemnation came when Rihanna herself took to her Instagram story to comment on the ad, writing:
“Now SNAPCHAT I know you already know you ain’t my favorite 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 bring intentionally 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."
When Rihanna speaks, the people listen, and just minutes after she condemned the app for their misguided ad, fans started deleting Snapchat from their phones in solidarity with RiRi. It’s yet another blow to the app that was already struggling after Instagram stole their business model (and arguably improved on it). The app’s stock value declined last month when one of its most loyal users, Kylie Jenner, tweeted that she didn’t even use it anymore—so you can imagine what the reaction will be now that people actually have a reason to avoid the app.
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