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Senator Lisa Shoman has chastised BTL for some off colour ads that they placed on social media – and tonight the phone company is apologizing for its bad taste. The ads appeared on facebook and instagram and the first depicted Hollywood actress Jennifer Coolidge in a suggestive pose, with the accompanying text: "ladies meet cougar. she is the enemy. she is mature, experienced, rich and loves young boys. your young boys. luckily DigiCell has equipped you to fight back!"

Shoman calls the message degrading and adds, quote, "The message...(implies) among other things, that older affluent women are insatiable pedophiles." End quote.

She then turns her ire to another BTL social media Facebook ad which shows a young woman with duct tape covering her mouth, cradled by a man, captioned: "This could be us but you keep escaping."

Shoman points to the accompanying text which says, quote:

"if your true love keeps escaping, Talk & Text with them ALL NIGHT…

Additionally , it appears with the unfortunate hashtag: "#tryducttape."

Shoman surmises, quote, "Memes like this…helps to cement a culture of violence against women, and equates women as flesh for male consumption." She continues, quote, "It caters to, and is dreamed up by an adolescent male fantasy of rape, submission, degradation, (and) depredation of women. She concludes, sternly, quote, "These ads serve to anoint your company as an endorser, if not an accomplice of rape culture."

Well that's a corporate beatdown if ever there was one, and today chairman of BTL's executive committee Anwar Barrow owned up to it when he wrote to Shoman saying, quote, "...we agree that those particular…social media posts were offensive and as such removed them immediately…prior to your letter." He adds, quote, "We have subsequently put in place a proper screening process for social media posts and will be further considering other supplemental measures. The company sincerely apologizes to our customers for any offense taken." End quote. BTL says it will issue a formal response on Friday.

Shoman who is a former BTL Chairman has asked for, quote, "swift and appropriate sanctions for the offenders; and the implementation of a zero tolerance policy of misogyny and degradation of women at all corporate levels."