That influencer apology template everyone uses is making things worse, not better

I was scrolling through Twitter last week and saw this beauty influencer I used to follow get called out for some old racist tweets she posted when she was 19. She put out this statement that was almost word for word the same apology flowchart I've seen a dozen times this year. 'I take full responsibility, I'm committed to learning and growing, I will be taking time offline to educate myself.' It's like they all copy from the same script their PR team sends out. I actually did some digging and found there's literally a template shared in some PR circles that costs like $50 and they just swap out the names. How is that supposed to fix anything when it's just copy paste sadness? Has anyone else noticed how fake these canned apologies feel compared to when someone actually writes something specific and real?

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2 Comments

jenniferw8212d ago

You mention the apology template costing $50 and that it feels fake, but I actually see it the other way. These standardized apologies are a step up from the defensive nonsense influencers used to put out, where they'd blame the fans or say "I'm sorry if anyone was offended." At least with this template, they're forced to admit fault and promise change, which is more than we got five years ago. The real problem isn't the template, it's that people want blood and don't care what the apology says. Someone could write the most heartfelt, specific essay about their mistakes and the internet would still tear it apart. I'd rather have a boring but correct apology than one where they try to be clever and mess it up even worse. And honestly, if you're famous enough to have a PR team, you should probably let them handle it because most of these influencers are 22 and have no idea how to communicate without making things worse.

the_holly12d ago

and honestly @jenniferw82 you're totally right about influencers being better off letting PR handle it because I've seen too many of them panic and post a 3am apology that just makes everything worse. the template thing is smart if it forces them to actually say what they did wrong and not dance around it with that "I'm sorry you feel that way" garbage. I think the bigger issue is people decide if an apology is real based on their feelings about the person, not what the words actually say. like you said, even a perfect apology gets torn apart if people already hate you.