ENLARGE Photo: Twitter 
 
 Bloomingdale’s, the luxury department store owned by Macy’s Inc., M 0.79 % is the latest advertiser to face an outpouring of criticism on the Web. 
 
 Consumers have taken to social media this week to criticize an ad in Bloomingdale’s holiday catalog that some interpreted as encouraging date rape. 
 
 The ad features a woman laughing with her head turned as a young man looks her way. The text reads: “Spike Your Best Friend’s Eggnog When They’re Not Looking.” 
 
 There have been 3,868 comments on social media channels over the last 48 hours about the ad, according to data from social media analytics firm Networked Insights. The majority of the comments, Networked Insights said, are negative. Data shows that many of the online commentators have called the ad “creepy.” 
 
 Bloomingdale’s has apologized for the ad. “In reflection of recent feedback, the copy we used in our current catalog was inappropriate and in poor taste. Bloomingdale’s sincerely apologizes for this error in judgment,” said the company in a statement. 
 
 It’s unclear what the intention of the ad was, but branding experts say that marketers are under pressure to stand out amid the ever-increasing amount of advertising messages that consumers are being bombarded with every day. And even more is at stake heading into the all-important holiday shopping season. 
 
 “Marketers have to work harder to get attention nowadays, but the more they try, the riskier it becomes,” said Jonah Disend, chief executive officer of Redscout, a branding firm owned by MDC Partners. 
 
 Bloomingdale’s is the latest company to see how quickly controversy can spread thanks in part to social media. Earlier this week, consumers took to social media to complain about Starbuck’s new red holiday cups or to vent about the fact there was even a controversy. 
 
 Write to Suzanne Vranica at suzanne.vranica@wsj.com
– "Bloomingdale's must be pleased everyone is too distracted by red cups to notice its pro-roofie holiday ad," tweets one Washington Post writer. That's right, another company has found itself in some holiday hot water this week. The Wall Street Journal reports the Internet is in an uproar over an ad in the Bloomingdale's holiday catalog that appears to encourage date rape. The offending ad shows a laughing woman looking away as a man stares intently at her. The text reads: "Spike Your Best Friend's Eggnog When They're Not Looking." A social analytics firm found thousands of online comments made about the ad, mostly negative with the majority opinion apparently being "creepy." "Someone at Bloomingdale’s thought this ad was smart," a Mashable executive tweets. "I assume that person has been fired." But it's not just the Internet that has a problem with Bloomingdale's ad. "What is this? Some kind of business function they’re attending? This is the way we’re going to treat women in the workplace?” a gender studies professor tells the Post. “It’s sending the message that it is it okay to have sex with people who are incapable of consent." "I doubt the person who created this was consciously thinking about sexual assault," another expert says. "Male or female, whoever it was who came up with this—and the many people who okayed it—just don't get it." Bloomingdale's apologized for the ad in the wake of the uproar. “In reflection of recent feedback, the copy we used in our current catalog was inappropriate and in poor taste," the Journal quotes a company statement. "Bloomingdale’s sincerely apologizes for this error in judgment."