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A retailer in Singapore swung and completely missed with their advertisement that was trying to catch some of the Black Friday shopping buzz.

SuperGurl is an online retailer of discounted women’s clothing from Singapore that generally promotes a classy and chic look with its clothes and ads. But their attempt to lure in shoppers for Black Friday, one of the biggest shopping days of the year, led to a huge black eye as the company’s management failed to notice a glaringly distasteful advertisement that appeared all over their website and accompanying smartphone app.

Instead of the usual  “Click Here” or “Shop Now” button, the icon shoppers were supposed to click said “Rape Us Now”, right next to a picture of a young woman whose pose could be interpreted as being “tied up”. Unsurprisingly, the backlash hit the company almost immediately with people across the globe slamming SuperGurl for their extremely poor choice of phrasing and complete lack of respect for women.

The company responded to the ad, saying that they also found it insensitive and there was a failure on their part to review the material before posting it. Jordus Lim, SuperGurl’s creative director, responded directly in a blog and Facebook post, saying:

“As the director of the company, I have failed to review my Graphic Designer’s work before approving the image to be displayed on our site. I hereby acknowledge that we have made a mistake, and that our caption does not advocate the right values to the young women community today.”

Many online commenters were glad to see the direct and prompt response to the issue, but questioned how such an oversight could have occurred in the first place. The picture couldn’t have only been viewed by the graphic designer; there must have been others who saw it and yet failed to think, “Hmm…this probably shouldn’t make it onto the website.” Hopefully, this incident has taught SuperGurl the error of their ways and maybe next November we will see an ad that has the tagline, “Just give us your money.”

Source: The Cut
Top image: Facebook/SuperGurl