Bloomingdale, a world-renowned US department store chain, had been criticized especially in social media since the launch of their holiday catalogue which bluntly encourages men to date rape a female friend.
"Spike your best friend's eggnog when they're not looking," is the tag line of the ad with a woman laughing and a guy staring at her without her noticing.
Social media users were vocal in expressing their dismay in the 'inappropriate', 'atrocius' and 'beyond vile' advert. Some even questioned why the tag line was not altered during the editing process.
One twitter user said that Bloomingdale's advert implicates 'date rape and non-consensual drug abuse'. Another one stated that Bloomingdale is dressing up rape as 'desirable and Christmassy'.
"Nothing says 'Merry Christmas' like date rape," tweeted Hannah Marsh. Dierdre Walsh on the other hand said, "Now that's just creepy- I pity the models who've had their faces put into that."
Others even compared the ad to a controversial video of the song Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke which allegedly implicated rape connotations.
Bloomingdale issued a public apology via its official twitter account. "We heard your feedback about our catalogue copy, which was inappropriate and in poor taste. Bloomingdale's sincerely apologises."
This holiday ad had been the first to receive negative criticisms for sexism and misogyny this year.
Asda also experienced the same fury from online users when they released a Christmas advertisement showing a mother wearing a pinafore in the past.
It was blasted for suggesting that household chores are intended for women. They later apologized saying, "To any mums and dads who have been upset by our Christmas TV ad - we'd like to offer our sincere apologies".
Asda said that the ad supposedly depicted the 16M mums who shop at the store and added that it was not intended to offend, but rather, to be light-hearted and fun.
