Rihanna reminded the world of her power to move markets yesterday (March 15, 2018) when she responded to a Snapchat ad that asked readers if they’d “rather slap Rihanna or punch Chris Brown.”
In a statement posted on Instagram stories, Rihanna wrote, “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 whole mess! I’d love to call it ignorance but you know I ain’t that dumb! You spend money to animate something that would intentionally bring shame to [domestic violence] victims and make a joke of it!!! … Shame on you. Throw the whole app-oligy away.”
Traded under SNAP, shares of the company’s stock were down close to four percent by day end after Rihanna published her note. The decline follows a seven percent stock skid in February in reaction to a Kylie Jenner tweet that read, “sooo does anyone else not open Snapchat anymore? Or is it just me… ugh this is so sad.” SNAP shares are down 13 percent for March, but are still up close to 18 percent for the year.
The horrendous ad clearly was constructed to tap into the controversy generated by Brown’s brutal assault of Rihanna in 2009, for which he was arrested and found guilty.
Rihanna was responding to a press release the company released on Wednesday that included an apology. “The advert was reviewed and approved in error, as it violates our advertising guidelines,” the company said. “We immediately removed the ad last weekend, once we became aware. We are sorry that this happened.”
The company noted that the ad was part of its self-serve advertising platform and fell through the cracks of the review process.
Push back on the ad first surfaced on March 12th on Twitter where the ad was described by a platform user as tone deaf.
“Now Snapchat…”
“Would you rather…”
Tone deaf ad
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
