Virgin Mobile U.S. pulls holiday ad that seems to condone rape

Virgin Mobile U.S. killed an ad that seemed to make light of rape following protests from Richard Branson — who owns the rest of the Virgin brand but sold the U.S. mobile group to Sprint in 2009 — and plenty of Twitter users. Branson declared the commercial "ill-judged" and "a dreadful mistake." The ad in question, which was used online, shows a gift-wielding man covering a woman's eyes, with the glaringly bold headline: "The gift of Christmas surprise. Necklace? Or chloroform?" Virgin's implication of using chloroform to knock out female victims was immediately torn to shreds on Twitter. A Virgin Mobile spokeswoman responded, "This image was not approved by Virgin Mobile USA. ... We apologize deeply ... It was removed early this morning." [Source]

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