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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?
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hunt.quinn26d ago
....but honestly I think you're being a LITTLE generous calling that a 45 second apology. I've seen some of these things stretch to two minutes of pure nothing, just slow pans over their office plants and that same piano track. The real problem is they're treating the video like the fix itself, when it's actually just the intro to the fix. Like, okay, you hear us, but what are you DOING about it? The Portland coffee shop thing is the perfect example, they said sorry and then went dark, which basically told everyone the apology was just a pause button. And yeah, the silence was way worse than the leak because at least the leak was an accident, the silence felt like a choice. A good apology I actually saw was a small clothing brand that got called out for using a stock photo of a model who didn't exist, they posted a plain text update listing the exact steps they took to audit their supply chain and when they'd post proof. No music, no soft filter, just a timeline and a person's name to email if it didn't happen. That stuff works because it treats the audience like they're smart enough to check if you follow through.
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evan_burns9527d ago
State the actual problem and the fix timeline first, then the music means something.
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