I remember this one burger place in Austin, back in 2019, they had that weird chicken sandwich shortage and then put out this weird apology video that was just their CEO staring at the camera for 2 minutes without talking. I sat there thinking, wait, did they actually try to be funny with this? It totally backfired because people got even more mad that they weren't taking it seriously. Has anyone else seen a brand's apology that just made the whole mess bigger?
My brand's instagram pissed off a bunch of people with a tone-deaf meme about remote work last week, and our normal sorry-not-sorry response just made it worse. On a whim, I replied to each angry comment with a sincere "thanks for calling me out, I messed up" and nothing else. Has anyone else tried just owning the fail without the usual corporate spin?
I run a small coffee shop in Portland and last month we accidentally sent out a batch of cold brew that was way too old and sour. Everyone online says 'never apologize publicly because you'll look weak' but I posted a quick video saying yeah we messed up, here's what happened, and we'll replace any drink for free for the next week. We lost about $400 in replacements but our social media actually went up by like 15% in engagement. Has anyone else seen a brand get hammered for apologizing too much?
I run a small electrical shop in Portland and last month I crossed 1,000 complaints in my file. Half are from people who think I charged too much for a simple outlet swap. The other half are from people who say I saved them from a fire. I'm not sure if that number means I'm a bad guy or a good one. What do you guys think, does a high complaint count just mean you're dealing with a lot of people or does it actually mean something wrong with your business?
Back in 2014 I remember a small local bakery had a batch of cookies with the wrong sugar and they just posted a plain text apology on their page. No video, no fancy graphics. People actually respected it. Fast forward to last week I saw a big chain do a whole 3 part apology series with a hashtag and a charity pledge after a mix up with their rewards program. It felt so fake and overdone... has anyone else noticed how brands try way too hard to fix things now?
Guy at the Seattle drive-through last Tuesday told me his diabetic kid drank a full cup before they caught the error. Their fix was a $5 coupon. Has anyone else gotten a brand apology that felt worse than the original mess?
We ran this whole influencer push for a new product launch and got 3 likes out of 30,000 reach. Has anyone else had a metric fall so flat you had to double check the dashboard wasn't broken?
I was scrolling through TikTok last Tuesday and saw this brand called Boba Bliss post a 3 minute apology video for a delivery mix-up. Instead of just saying sorry for the wrong orders, the owner spent most of it blaming the delivery app and then tried to promote a new drink flavor at the end. Within 24 hours, I watched their comments go from 50 angry people to over 2,000 people roasting them for being tone-deaf. Has anyone else noticed how brands kill their own PR by mixing apologies with ads?
Last Tuesday they offered a free sandwich with any purchase and the app totally died by 10:30 AM. People were stuck in drive-thru lines for 45 minutes yelling at cashiers. Has anyone else had a brand promo blow up this bad because they didn't plan for traffic?
Back in 2023, my handle snapped clean off while I was wringing out the mop, and I got dirty water ALL over my kitchen floor. Their customer service sent me a replacement handle but it took 6 weeks and they never admitted the design was flawed. Has anyone else had a mop or cleaning tool just fall apart on them and the company acted like it was your fault?
I remember back in 2018 when that chicken sandwich place posted a three-line apology poem after their supplier debacle and people roasted them so hard they deleted it within two hours which just made everyone screenshot it and circulate it even more, has anyone else noticed brands getting worse at reading the room before they hit send?
I posted a rant about that canned coffee brand's fake apology last month and it got 40k views overnight. Has anyone else seen a random video take off like that from a brand messing up?
Got a 1 star review 3 months ago. Lady said I quoted her $800 for tile but didn't mention the plywood subfloor was rotted. Had to eat $200 in extra materials. Now I send a 10 point checklist before any quote. Every client signs off on subfloor condition first. Has anyone else had to rewrite their process because of one bad review?
I was at a diner in Cleveland last month and a cashier told me the local chain sent out a social media apology after they put a wrong price on their maple bacon donuts. They posted a photo with a sad sprinke donut and the caption said 'we goofed' but didn't mention the actual refund. Has anyone else seen a brand try to fix a pricing mess with a joke that just fell flat?
I run a small bakery Instagram account and I hit 500 followers this morning, which is weird because last month I posted that video of a cake collapsing on live stream and it went a little viral for all the wrong reasons... the brand fail was real but somehow people kept following anyway. I guess the mess ups are what make you feel human, you know? Has anyone else seen a jump in followers after a public screw up?
My buddy Mark from the station told me 8 months ago that Drunk Elephant was overhyped and would crash. I laughed it off because everyone was raving about their serums. Now they're getting dragged for that whole SPF recall and layoff news. Has anyone else dodged a brand hype train just by listening to one person?
I was grabbing coffee with a friend who covers marketing for a local paper, and she pointed out that Pepsi spent something like $5 million on that Kendall Jenner ad before they pulled it. She said the real fail wasn't the ad itself, it was that their first apology tried to blame 'creative missteps' instead of just owning that they co-opted real activism. Made me wonder if companies even have people in the room who understand why something is offensive before it goes live. Has anyone here worked at a place where social issues came up in a campaign meeting and got shut down?
I was looking through charity watchdog sites because my niece asked about a brand's 'buy one give one' program she saw on TikTok. Turns out the fine print said they only counted meals after a certain threshold was met. They never hit that threshold. 47 meals. For a company that sold like 50,000 units. Has anyone else looked into those feel good campaigns and found the numbers don't add up?
I was scrolling through Reddit last night and saw how fast they deleted comments on their own post, then put out a 2-minute video apology that didn't mention the actual problem, so has anyone else noticed brands just copying each other's apology format without fixing anything?
Last month I saw a brand post a long PDF apology on Twitter after a promo code glitch, and everyone just roasted them for being so formal and cold. It got me thinking how fast a canned response can backfire when people want a real human talking to them. Why do big companies still think a press release style apology works when everyone else is just using plain text?
Long story short, a meal kit company sent me a box with spoiled shrimp last Tuesday. I chose the public apology on their Instagram page and honestly, my friends roasted me for days and the card would've been way quieter. Would you take the cash or the clout in that situation?
I was scrolling Tuesday and saw this big coffee chain put out a whole video apology for a messed up order. The CEO looked like he was reading off a teleprompter and the lighting was terrible. Meanwhile, there's this small donut shop near me in Austin that messed up my birthday box last month. They sent me a handwritten note and a $50 gift card within a day, no cameras, no fanfare. The coffee chain's thing got 2 million views but felt fake, while the donut shop's note actually made me go back. Customer says they want transparency, but that video was just a scripted ad. Has anyone else noticed how plastic the big brand apologies feel compared to small places?
I bought into the hype around GlowFix's "clean beauty" launch after seeing influencers rave about it. Spent $40 on their starter set and my face broke out into a rash that took two weeks and a $75 dermatologist visit to fix. Their apology was a generic email with a 15% off coupon, which felt like a slap in the face. Has anyone else gotten burned by a brand's overhyped launch that they had to pay to recover from?
So Burger King had that whole 'Whopper Detour' thing where they basically told you to go to McDonald's to get a deal. Launched it on April 1st 2023 and the app crashed for like 4 hours. I tried to claim my free Whopper on April 2nd and it kept erroring out. Somehow they emailed me a coupon for free medium fries with every purchase for a whole month because of the glitch. Has anyone else gotten an apology that was actually worth the headache?