When Snapchat made — and pulled — a disrespectful ad making light of the violent history between singers Rihanna and Chris Brown, the company faced a backlash that may not have been worth the publicity. Now, as Rihanna weighs in herself — via Instagram’s rival Stories feature, no less — Snapchat is going to be feeling the heat more than ever as her Navy is almost guaranteed to pull whatever remaining support they had for the ailing social media picture app.
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 (@royceforatlanta) March 12, 2018
“Now Snapchat, I know you already know you ain’t my fav app out there,” Rihanna wrote, “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 intentionally bring 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.”
It seems nothing more needs to be said. The troubles between Rihanna and Brown are well-documented at this point, and well ingrained into both their stories, whether they like it or not. It’s a real shame that so many continue to make light of serious issues like domestic violence because they can’t see the humanity in celebrities. Hopefully Rihanna’s message will change at least a few minds, including the right ones in with the power to veto decisions like this one.
