c/brand-drama-breakdown

I took the apology at face value and skipped the boycott, that coffee brand came back stronger

Everyone in this sub said to dump them for that tone-deaf ad, but I kept buying their $4 latte last spring and watched their sales crawl back by August, so has anyone else found that public outrage fades way faster than the brand loyalty does?

0 comments

chen.casey•2d ago

The apology video was 4 minutes of excuses, the brand statement fixed nothing

Watched that vegan snack company's CEO cry through an apology video on Tuesday after they lied about sourcing for 8 months. Then they posted a written statement that was basically a marketing pitch for their new flavor, zero real answers. I've been a customer since 2019 but I emailed them asking for a refund on my last order, has anyone actually gotten one back from these press-release apologies?

1 comments

cooper.phoenix•3d ago

That viral influencer workshop in Austin gave me advice that backfired hard

I paid $400 for a two day marketing workshop run by a 300k follower creator who said to lean into manufactured outrage around every brand misstep. So I posted a hot take on a food chain's stale PR statement, and my comments section turned into a war zone while the brand actually thanked the critic who called me out. She never mentioned that her own engagement tanked after she tried the same stunt, and now I've got 1,200 angry replies and zero new clients. Has anyone else followed advice from a big name and watched it blow up in their face within a week?

2 comments

terry_jones•3d ago

Wasted $85 on that viral brand course, wish I checked the comments first

I saw this marketing guy on TikTok pushing his brand rescue program, and the ads made it look like a total game changer. Paid $85 last month and it was just a bunch of generic tips about posting more and using hashtags. Then I dug into the comments on his older videos and found dozens of people saying the same thing, it's a recycled template with zero actual help. Has anyone else gotten burned by these influencer-led courses, or did I just pick the wrong one?

1 comments

dianal94•3d ago

The $200 'premium' water bottle that leaked on my laptop

Bought one of those influencer-backed bottles that claimed indestructible seals, and three weeks in it dumped water all over my bag, killing my work laptop. The brand's apology was a copy-paste DM and a 15% off code, not a refund. Anyone else get burned by a hyped product that fell apart fast?

2 comments

hall.nina•8d ago

Got roasted for using a 2018 apology template in a 2025 brand scandal

Last Tuesday I posted a quick 'we hear you and we're sorry' reply to a customer complaint on our small tea shop's Instagram, but I copied the wording from a template I saved 7 years ago. Someone screenshotted it and pointed out the exact same phrasing was used by a fast food chain during a 2023 fry shortage drama. Has anyone else accidentally recycled old PR lines and gotten called out for it, or am I the only one stuck in apology time?

0 comments

hugoh55•8d ago

Vent: Tried posting a response apology template and the reply ratio got weird

So I run a small shop and got a complaint about a shipping delay. I drafted one of those scripted apology replies, the kind with the emoji and the 'we hear you' line. Posted it and the comments went from 2 angry people to like 14 people piling on about how corporate it sounded. Then I replied to each one with a plain text, no emoji, just 'yeah that was on me, here's what happened' and a refund offer. Two days later most of those same people edited their comments to say it was handled. Never thought being less polished would actually work better. Has anyone else gotten backlash for using a canned response when a messy human answer goes over smoother?

0 comments

thomasshah•12d ago

Bought the "viral" oat milk stout case and it was a total PR stunt

Saw a brewery post a dramatic apology video about a 'limited batch' oat milk stout that sold out in 20 minutes, so I paid $48 for a resold 6-pack on eBay. Turned out the whole 'scarcity' was fake, they brewed 10,000 cases and the apology was just marketing to get free press. Did anyone else get burned by this 'apology drop' tactic, or is it just me?

0 comments

wright.lisa•12d ago

My coworker's 'wait 48 hours before posting' advice saved me in Portland

Last week our bakery had a customer complaint blow up on local FB and my first draft was a long defensive response. My coworker told me to sit on it for two days, and by then the original post got deleted and people moved on. Anyone else found that patience beats a quick reply in these messes?

1 comments

the_thomas•15d ago

That $2 mascara refund turned into a full brand apology arc

I bought a new mascara at a Target in Austin last month, and the brush fell apart on the first use, leaving black goop all over my sink and my face. I sent a quick complaint photo to the company's social media, expecting nothing, but their PR team replied in 20 minutes with a full refund and a public apology post. Within two days, they had a whole campaign about quality control and even sent me three free replacements, which felt like overkill for a $2 tube. Has anyone else gotten a tiny refund that somehow ballooned into a big corporate damage control moment, and did it make you trust them more or less?

0 comments

the_tessa•15d ago

Apology video whiplash: hated the brand, then the CEO nailed the fix

I was ready to roast this skincare company after their influencer trip went sideways and they posted that weird 40 second non-apology. Then their CEO came back 3 days later with a real breakdown of what happened, gave refunds to everyone who bought the collab, and even shared the actual contract clauses they were changing. I went from writing a snarky thread to genuinely impressed by Tuesday night. It made me wonder if we're too quick to demand perfection on the first try. Has anyone else flipped from hater to defender because a brand handled the follow-up better than the initial mess?

0 comments

irismartinez•16d ago

My small shop's apology video backfired in a weird way

Last month my bakery posted a quick apology after we messed up a big wedding cake order. We scripted it, smiled, and offered a 20% discount code. Instead of calming people down, the comments got worse because they said we sounded fake. I learned that people want to see the messy real process, not a polished statement. Has anyone else had a public apology make things worse, and how did you fix it?

1 comments

nancybailey•18d ago

The $80 'viral' cooling pillow that made my neck worse

I finally caved and bought one of those cooling pillows everyone on TikTok was raving about. Paid $80 for the CloudComfort brand after seeing like 40 videos of people saying it cured their sleep issues. Three nights in and my neck was in knots, plus the gel layer basically turned into a lukewarm pancake by 2am. Am I the only one who fell for the hype on that thing, or did anyone else find a pillow that actually works?

2 comments

the_laura•18d ago

The apology post that backfired because I used a stock photo of a snake

I run a small pet brand and last month we messed up an order, so I wrote a public apology on Instagram. I grabbed a random stock photo to make it look professional, but it was a close-up of a python, and people thought we were threatening customers. Three hundred comments later and I had to delete it and redo the whole thing with a plain text note. Has anyone else had a visual choice sink their brand apology?

1 comments

ray363•19d ago

That $300 'viral' PR kit was a total scam for my small brand

I dropped $300 on one of those influencer PR kits from a brand that promised guaranteed TikTok coverage, but the three creators who posted it all had the same boring script and none of my products actually sold. The whole thing felt like a cash grab, and the tiny engagement I got was just other small business owners asking if it worked. Has anyone else tried a paid PR box and actually gotten real sales from it, or is this just how every one of these goes?

1 comments

robin_henderson81•19d ago

PSA: the 24 hour apology draft trick saved my brand's butt

Last month our snack company posted a tone deaf meme about napkins and people went wild. My first apology draft was pure panic, full of sorry and sobbing emojis. Instead of posting it, I waited 24 hours and rewrote it with just facts and a real fix. That version got 90% less hate and even some 'ok that's fair' replies. Now I swear by the delay method for any crisis post. Has anyone else tried waiting a full day before hitting send on an apology?

1 comments

riveradams•21d ago

Caught a brand using fake tweets in their apology graphic

A skincare company in Portland tried to show community support by screenshotting tweets that were clearly made up, timestamps didn't match and the usernames were all from one account. I zoomed in on the phone and spotted it in about 30 seconds, so I called them out in the replies. Anyone else see brands pull this kind of stunt when they're trying to save face?

1 comments

patricia_schmidt14•22d ago

That influencer apology video was just a crying ad for their new drops

Last Tuesday I watched a skincare brand post a 4 minute apology about their shady subscription billing, but halfway through they started pushing a discount code for their new serum. It was filmed in their office in Austin with perfect lighting and a ring light reflection in their eyes, which felt like a hostage video for my wallet. Does anyone else feel like these "sorry" posts are just product launches in a trench coat?

0 comments

angela_grant•23d ago

That 'influencer apology' from the skincare brand actually made me buy more

I rolled my eyes when Glow Theory posted that video apology after the whole expired serum mess last month. The CEO sat there with shaky hands and said 'we let our community down' and I was like sure, here comes the legal team script. But then they posted the actual batch test results from the third-party lab in Ohio, not just a screenshot, and offered refunds plus store credit without asking for a signed NDA. That transparency clicked for me after I'd been burned by two other brands who just deleted comments and ghosted. Any chance this means more companies might follow the receipts-over-words approach, or am I kidding myself?

0 comments

charles_kelly43•24d ago

Paid $40 for a crisis PR template pack, got roasted anyway

Our small coffee brand got slammed last month over a bad influencer collab. I thought buying a $40 template pack for apology statements would save us. Instead it made us sound like every other corporate robot, and the comments called us out for copying the same line from a soda brand's scandal. The real fix was just our owner recording a 2 minute video admitting the mistake with no script. That got more support than any polished statement. Anyone else found that paying for quick PR fixes makes things worse?

1 comments

william_henderson•26d ago

The apology template is getting so predictable I can spot it in 10 seconds

I swear every brand apology this month reads like they all hired the same intern. You got the stock photo of a CEO looking serious, the 'we heard you' line, then a promise to do better with zero specifics. It flipped for me after that coffee chain incident in Portland last week, they posted a 3 paragraph sorry note and then quietly archived it 48 hours later. Before 2020, brands at least tried to sound human, now it's like they run everything through a corporate filter that strips out any real accountability. I started keeping a little list of which ones actually follow up with changes versus just riding out the outrage cycle. Has anyone else tracked whether these apologies ever line up with real policy shifts, or am I just wasting my time?

1 comments

grayc27•27d ago

The 'we hear you' apology video is getting lazier every week

Saw a brand post a 45 second apology yesterday after they got caught recycling old stock photos in a campaign. The video had slow zooms, a soft filter, and that generic emotional piano track everyone uses. But they never said what they were sorry for. Just a lot of 'we hear you' and 'we will do better.' I've watched this happen like 6 times in the last year, small businesses mostly. They think the vibes matter more than the actual fix. Last month a local coffee shop in Portland did the same thing after a data leak, then went silent for two weeks. People got more mad about the silence than the leak itself. Anyone else notice that when brands skip the specifics and just apologize with music, it makes things worse? What's a good apology post you've seen actually work?

2 comments

hugoh55•28d ago

Warning: that "viral" apology from the coffee chain was scripted months ago

I was at a local roaster in Portland last week and overheard two marketing guys talking. They were laughing about how their planned "crisis" video for the burnt-batch scandal was already filmed back in April, just waiting for the right moment. They said the whole thing was a stunt to boost app downloads, and the numbers apparently jumped 30 percent overnight. Has anyone else spotted a brand fake a scandal just for attention, or are we all just too cynical now?

2 comments

kevin_harris78•28d ago

The $37 email template that saved our cafe from a Yelp disaster

Last month a customer posted a 1-star review claiming we served spoiled milk. I tried responding publicly and it just made things worse. After 2 days of arguing in the comments, I wrote a simple 4-sentence apology template that asked them to DM me their receipt and offered a free meal. They updated the review to 4 stars within a day. Has anyone else found a specific script or copy-paste reply that actually calms angry reviewers down?

2 comments

kimr10•1mo ago

Just realized the apology template is doing more harm than the scandals

For years I used to draft public apologies like a fill-in-the-blanks form, with 'we take full responsibility' and 'we are deeply sorry' in every post. Then I watched a small coffee chain in Portland get roasted for copying the exact same wording as a car brand's viral fail, and it hit me that people can smell a template from a mile away. Now I write them like a real human, specific to what happened and who it hurt, and honestly the replies are way less angry. Has anyone else stopped using those generic PR lines and seen a difference in how the crowd reacts?

1 comments