Comparing Ashton Kutcher's apology post to Justin Bieber's one was honestly eye opening

I was scrolling through old celebrity apology posts the other night and I compared Ashton Kutcher's response to his whole Sean 'Diddy' Combs letter backlash against Justin Bieber's fail from a few years ago. Ashton wrote like 5 paragraphs trying to explain himself with all this lawyer talk and it just made people more mad. Bieber on the other hand posted a blurry black screen with like two lines saying he was sorry and dipped out for a month. The difference was wild - Bieber's minimal approach actually worked better because he didn't try to defend himself. Ashton's long post came off as fake and calculated. It's like when you overtrain a muscle and it just gets more inflamed. Anyone else notice short apologies land way harder than long winded ones?

3 comments

3 Comments

samjohnson1mo ago

Never really thought about it that way. But yeah, you're right - Bieber had nothing left to lose, so a simple sorry felt real.

owens.cameron2d ago

Actually I think the Bieber apology was in 2020, not a few years ago. It was around the time all those old interviews of him being rude resurfaced. But your point stands. I remember reading Ashton's letter and it felt like he was trying to sell us on his side of things instead of just owning it. Bieber's was just like "I was a jerk, sorry" and that was it. Maybe it's just me but when someone writes a novel of an apology it always feels like they're trying to distract you from the actual thing they did wrong.

brown.gavin1mo ago

yeah but the real difference is Bieber was already at rock bottom with his reputation so a short sorry could only help, while Ashton was still coasting on goodwill and his letter just reminded everyone why he's always been a little too close to weird Hollywood stuff.