A luxury American department store has come under fire for an advert that some described as promoting date rape.

Bloomingdales was forced to apologise for its latest Christmas advertising campaign after it hit a wall of public criticism earlier this week.

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The full page promotion showed a woman watched by a man as she looked out of the frame, with the text “spike your best friend’s eggnog when they’re not looking”.

Many people argued the advert promoted ‘date rape’ culture, and saw the department store forced to apologise.

“We heard your feedback about our catalog copy, which was inappropriate and in poor taste. Bloomingdale’s sincerely apologizes,” a statement posted to Twitter read.

Taking to social media to express their outrage, many people questioned how the image made it through the approvals process.

“Bloomingdales encourages you to date rape your friend for the holidays,” Natalie Bee posted to Twitter.

“Some will remember to boycott. More will think they’re ‘edgy banter’. Bloomingdales won’t be harmed by this. But women will,” Jack Monroe wrote.

See more of the reaction below.

nothing gets me in the Christmas spirit more than ads condoning rape culture! #Bloomingdales pic.twitter.com/SQBdVRSKDl — Meredith Hauser (@MeredithJH9) November 11, 2015

Creepy #Bloomingdales, veeery creepy. pic.twitter.com/GBSpbXFU5N — Walking Dead Thangs☠ (@_FearTheWalking) November 11, 2015

You should probably never spike anybody’s drink without their permission @Bloomingdales — Kiersten Woglom (@KierstenWoglom) November 12, 2015