SuperGurl, a Singapore-based online retailer has apologized on its Facebook page for using the tagline “Rape us now” during its Black Friday sale.
SuperGurl did so following outrage expressed by netizens who harshly criticized the brand for its poor choice of wording to promote sales.
Jordus Lim, creative director of SuperGurl, said the company did not mean to be offensive and he took the blame personally not reviewing the graphic designer’s work before allowing the image to be displayed on the site.
Lol seriously SuperGurl? "RAPE US NOW" 😒 pic.twitter.com/wbE6Eh74T1
— Ruruchan🎀 (@RiNNy3Honey) November 30, 2015
Jordus Lim Apology
“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,” said Lim.
“Having regretted for what we have done, the team at Supergurl will definitely be more careful with what we will put up in future as this is also a lesson learnt for us. This is an honest mistake that we have made on our side, and we do know that it is indefensible. We hope that the public will accept our apology for what we have done wrong.”
Here is the Facebook post:
I am writing this to express our sincerest apologies pertaining to our insensitive action and the choice of word – rape…
Posted by SuperGurl on Monday, November 30, 2015
Like many others, Facebook user Wei Wei Gwee was incensed with SuperGurl when writing:
“Rape isn’t an advertising angle that one can exploit when thousands of victims suffer the irreparable damage rape has caused to them every day. Not only do you make light of sexual assault, you used this really young girl in a suggestive pose which seems to be extremely inappropriate. I wonder how the model will feel if she knew her photo was being used this way.”