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

1 Comment

kelly38518d ago

and honestly the snake photo thing is hilarious in hindsight but I get why it freaked people out. like your brain just sees scales and fangs and instantly goes to threat mode, even if the caption says sorry. I once saw a brand apologize with a pic of a sad looking cat and everyone thought they were being passive aggressive about the customer. photos carry so much weird subtext you dont even realize until its too late. next time just use a plain colored background or literally your logo, boring is way safer for apologies.