Am I the only one who thinks Peloton's apology for that racist ad was just them reading off a script?

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?

3 comments

3 Comments

robin_roberts841mo ago

Devil's advocate here - the apology video covered all the standard PR crisis points pretty well. Most people watching it just want to see that the company recognizes they messed up, not a deep dive into systemic racism.

taylor.amy29d ago

Totally agree with you on this @robin_roberts84. I watched that apology video and honestly, it hit all the right notes for me. Last year the coffee shop near my house put out a similar statement after messing up a catering order for a big neighborhood block party. They didn't try to explain away their mistake or get into some big lecture about how their whole supply chain was broken. They just said "we messed up, we're sorry, here's what we're doing to fix it." That was enough for me to keep going there. Sometimes people just want a simple "we're sorry" without a whole history lesson attached. The company showed they know they dropped the ball and that's what most of us need to move on.

finley72929d ago

Oh come on, you really think that apology was enough? That video was the most generic, soulless thing I've seen in a while. They literally read off a teleprompter like robots, didn't even mention the word "racism" once. Watching that felt like they just copy-pasted from some corporate crisis PR template. If a coffee shop messing up a catering order is your benchmark for a good apology, then you're missing the bigger picture here. Peloton had a massive ad that was clearly racist and they didn't even acknowledge what the actual problem was. That's not an apology, that's just damage control. Brands have figured out they can just say "we're sorry" without actually changing anything and people like you just eat it up.