Rihanna's Call-Out Causes Snapchat's Stock to Spiral

By Ashley Logan on March 19, 2018

Whatever You Do, Don’t Come for Rihanna

Over this past weekend, Snapchat has lost nearly $800 million in their stocks because of an insensitive ad. The app hasn’t had the best track record recently, but this takes the cake. Rihanna took to Instagram to share her disgust for Snapchat and their recent advertisement that belittled domestic violence.

The ad featured a game called “Would You Rather,” that asked users if they would rather slap Rihanna or punch Chris Brown. The ad pokes fun at domestic violence and its victims.The game brings up a traumatic situation that occurred almost a decade ago in 2009. Rihanna’s past relationship with Chris Brown endured a lot of toxicity including a brutal fight between the two.

via Wikimedia Commons

The bottom line is that domestic violence is not funny and should never be taken lightly. It was insensitive and careless for a large company like Snapchat to have approved an advertisement this offensive for their platform. The company issued an apology early last week before Rihanna took notice of what had occurred. According to TheVerge, they promptly removed the advertisement and issued an apology saying that “The advert was reviewed and approved in error, as it violates our advertising guidelines.”

However, Rihanna nor the rest of the internet accepted this apology. In Rih Rih’s response, she said, “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 [domestic violence] victims and made a joke of it!!!…all of the women, children, and men that have been victims of DV and especially the ones who haven’t made it out yet…you let us down!”

Snapchat backtracked early last week and had the ad removed but their initial posting was still questioned by many. At the end of Rih Rih’s statement, she dismisses the company entirely and tells them to “throw the whole app-oligy [app and apology] away.”

The future isn’t looking so bright for the once beloved social media app. In an article for CNN, they discussed how Rihanna’s Instagram story led many people to stand by her and “throw the app away.” Because this story has been blasted all over the internet, Snapchat’s stock has continued to fall.

via Pixabay.com

The Update

Snapchat has been well on its way to being “canceled” for a while now. Even before this incident, Snapchat has been catching a lot of flak ever since they released a new update in late FebruaryThe update completely changed the way that users were used to its operation in order to appeal to a more commercial audience. Snapchat took away features that made navigation easy, in order to push onto users what they thought everyone would want to see, including more ads.

However, this was not beneficial to the company at all. In fact, there were petitions posted on Change.org to have the application revert its software back to normal. One petition garnered over one million signatures though the company still refused to undo the update. Snapchat’s rating on the App Store went from 4 stars to 1.8 stars with the majority of comments pleading for them to remove the update. Let’s just say that we all hate it.

In a statement, Snapchat responded by saying that “This new foundation is just the beginning, and we will always listen closely to find new ways to make the service better for everyone. We are grateful for your enthusiasm and creativity. We are very excited for what’s ahead.” So basically, they’re not fixing the app but making the new foundation easier to navigate.

Kylie Jenner, once known as the “king of Snapchat,” denounced her love for the social media app because of the update as well. On Twitter, Jenner tweeted, “Sooo does anyone else not open Snapchat anymore? Or is it just me… ugh this is so sad.” Followed by a “still love you though.” Just like Rihanna, Jenner’s impact on Snapchat’s brand image and stock were tremendous. After Jenner’s confession, Snapchat’s stock and market value decreased by $1.3 billion.

What Now, Snapchat?

These billion-dollar losses aren’t as detrimental to the company as it seems. With Rihanna’s impact resulting in a 1% loss and Kylie’s resulted in 6%. From a business perspective, these hits won’t cause the company to go bankrupt. However, the influence of the customers’ opinions is important to pay attention to. When there are petitions created in order to get your attention and make things better for the customer, these opinions should be valued and taken into consideration.

The update is nowhere near the same magnitude of the domestic violence advertisement, however, both of these issues have created a negative perception of Snapchat’s image. If Snapchat continues on this path of carelessness and disregard for consumer demand, things just might get worse for them.

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