Showerthought: I used to think public apologies were pointless, but watching a local musician in Portland handle a backlash changed my view.

He posted a 90-second video directly to his fans, just saying 'I messed up, here's what I'm doing to learn' without any corporate script. I compared that to a big influencer who had a PR team write a long, vague statement, and the musician's simple honesty felt way more real and actually helped people move on. Has anyone else seen a specific apology that actually worked to calm things down?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_pat1mo ago

What about when a company messes up? I saw a small coffee roaster post a clear list of steps they were taking after a shipping error, like "we fixed the website bug and will personally call everyone affected." It felt direct and stopped the complaints pretty fast.

the_sam1mo agoProlific Poster

That Harvard Business Review piece called it the "humble brag" apology, and it works.

johnflores1mo ago

Yeah, the "humble brag" apology thing @the_sam mentioned is everywhere now. I read something similar about how the best fix is just saying what went wrong and what you're doing, no extra fluff. That coffee roaster example is perfect, it shows they care about the fix, not just their image. People can spot when a company is more sorry about looking bad than the actual problem.