Rihanna wiped almost $1 billion off the value of Snapchat’s parent company, Snap Inc., after she criticized the app for an advertisement that appeared to make light of domestic violence. The ad was for a game called “Would You Rather?” and it featured photos of Rihanna and Chris Brown. The question accompanying the ad said: “Would you rather slap Rihanna or punch Chris Brown?” Brown was arrested and sentenced to community service after he attacked Rihanna, who was his girlfriend at the time, in 2009. Rihanna posted pictures of the ad on her Instagram story, criticizing the app for approving an ad that made a joke out of violence. Following criticism on Twitter, Snapchat pulled the ad and issued a brief apology, saying the ad violated its “guidelines.” Rihanna issued a statement in response via Instagram’s stories feature, saying, “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!!!” She continued, saying, ““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.” Shares in the company dropped almost five percent overnight, reports The Guardian.
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
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