There’s a phrase that’s become popular on the internet that goes: ‘It’s ugly until Rihanna says it’s not’, relating to the fact that the Bajan star is so much of a tastemaker that widespread perception of something is altered on her mere say-so. And sadly for Snapchat, it looks as if their days of being a hot social media app are numbered, after Rih blasted them for featuring a tasteless advert.
The ad in question was for a game called ‘Would You Rather?’, and gave users the hypothetical options to either ‘Slap Rihanna’ or ‘Punch Chris Brown’.
Snapchat, WYD?
With this being a risqué topic to joke about in general, the offence becomes even greater when the history of domestic violence between the two is considered. Plenty of users failed to see the ‘humour’ in Snapchat’s post, and voiced their outrage online, which led to the platform issuing an apology.
‘The advert was reviewed and approved in error, as it violates our advertising guidelines,’ a spokesperson said. ‘We immediately removed the ad last weekend, once we became aware. We are sorry that this happened.’
However, Rihanna wasn’t too satisfied with the response, and on Thursday (15th March) decided to speak up about it herself ‒ using rival platform, Instagram Stories, to do so.
In her take-down, she said: ‘Now SNAPCHAT I know you already know you ain’t my fave app out there! But I’m just trying to figure out what the point was behind 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 [domestic violence] victims and made a joke of it!!!’
Rihanna’s response
‘This isn’t about my personal feelings, cause U 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!’
Ouch. She then ended her impassioned speech by saying, ‘Shame on you. Throw the whole app-oligy away.’
With fans of the ‘Wild Thoughts’ vocalist immediately declaring the app dead after her post, it’s not looking too great for Snapchat at the moment – especially as this follows widespread upset over the app’s recent update.
Is this enough to make you ‘cancel’ Snapchat? Let us know on Twitter @pridemag
