When companies try to appear fun or current, it can be a disaster. They can seem out-of-touch at best and tone-deaf at worst. The Windsor-Essex County Humane Society in Ontario learned that the hard way when they were forced to take down an ad that played off of Donald Trump‘s infamous “grab [women] by the pussy” advice to Billy Bush.

Windsor Humane Society apologizes for Trump-inspired campaign asking public to ‘grab a pussy’ https://t.co/eeE2TLuaHN pic.twitter.com/4V8VHM824z — National Post (@nationalpost) October 19, 2016

See, Trump told Bush that when you’re a “star,” women just let you grab them. So the ad, you know, says that you don’t have to be a star to get a cat. Get it?

Yeah, people got it, too, but they didn’t necessarily like it. Riffing on topics like sexual assault rarely goes well.

CBC News got a quote from executive director Melanie Coulter:

We thought the U.S election is something everyone is talking about. It was intended to make light of it. It wasn’t intended at all to make light of sexual assault or the comments about it. It was making light of the fact this is all anyone has been talking about … We are obviously sorry if people are offended by the ad — that wasn’t our attempt in the least. Our attempt was to find homes for cats that need them.

The shelter got about 100 cats last week and was just trying to encourage adoption, but judging by the reaction of the community, that doesn’t make it better.

[image via screengrab]

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