Rihanna Responds to Snapchat’s Controversial Ad

The Social Media app, Snapchat, has recently taken on a new way of spreading humor and information through ads. However, they seem to have recently gone under fire due to a viral ad referencing the altercation between Chris Brown and Rihanna. The post read, Would You Rather Slap Rihanna or Punch Chris Brown.

In February of 2009, singer Chris Brown turned himself in to authorities after assaulting fellow artist and then girlfriend Rihanna, after a couple’s quarrel turned violent. The assault took place before the 2009 grammy performance after the couple canceled due to a car accident. Sources later found out that there was an incident between Brown and Rihanna. Brown was then arrested after being accused of domestic violence and battery. Photos were later released of Rihanna’s bruised face proving that she was badly beaten. Brown was released on $50k bail, accepting 180 hours of community service, and ordered not to contact Rihanna at any time. The two have since reconciled as friends and have done what they can to put the almost 10-year old incident behind them.

According to the team over at Snapchat, the ad, was never meant to be published. However, it looks like they weren’t even thoughtful enough to quickly take it down. On Wednesday, March 14, a Spokesperson for the app spoke to US Weekly, “We immediately removed the ad last weekend, once we became aware. We are sorry this happened”. Rihanna didn't seem to care much for the app’s little “accident” as she quickly released a statement on Instagram after catching a glimpse of the post.

Brown’s Lawyer Marc Geragos also released a statement. “They should change their name from snapchat to tone deaf,” he told US Weekly on Thursday, March 15. Rihanna, however, is not the first celeb to express her disdain of the Social Network and definitely not the last. Kylie Jenner publicly announced her dislike of the updated app, tweeting, “does anyone else not open snapchat anymore? Or is it just me … ugh this is so sad”. Her comment has been liked over 377,000 times costing the company’s stock to drop 7 percent. Following the Rihanna incident and the sharing of similar views as Jenner, model Chrissy Teigen decided to jump ship as well. As a result of the ad, Snapchat’s market value has dropped by $800 million. According to CNN Tech, after Rihanna’s response, their stocks dropped 4 percent costing the app to lose hundreds of millions of dollars. The app is slowly but surely losing some of its big names. Could Snapchat be coming to an end?