Users are deleting Snapchat following its "slap Rihanna" ad (UPDATE)

Snapchat's fall from grace has been swift and sudden. The company changed its UI on iOS, which led upset Snapchatter's to circulate a petition demanding that the old UI be brought back. That might have cost the company a few iOS subscribers, but it is nothing compared to the current brouhaha that Snapchat finds itself embroiled in. The messaging app ran an ad on its app asking whether users "would rather slap Rihanna or punch Chris Brown." Brown was convicted in 2009 after brutally attacking Rihanna in a car.

Many Snapchat subscribers took to social media to post their disgust with the ad, and several of them said that they would uninstall the app from their phones. Negative comments were found all over Twitter, including one from Chelsea Clinton that said, "Just awful. Awful that anyone thinks this is funny. Awful that anyone thinks this is appropriate. Awful that any company would approve this." Which does make us wonder, what was the marketing department at Snapchat thinking? Were they thinking at all?

UPDATE: Snapchat has issued a statement about the incident, calling the ad "disgusting." The statement goes on to say "We are so sorry we made the terrible mistake of allowing it through our review process. We are investigating how that happened so that we can make sure it never happens again."

Today, Rihanna herself called out Snapchat on her Instagram account, posting that Snapchat has let down women, children and men who have been victims of domestic violence. Investors also took sides today as Snapchat parent SNAP saw its stock slide as much as 5% to hit a low of $16.91 before rebounding to close at $17.20, off 3.6% on the day.


source: NYPost