“Creativity is in our DNA at Apple, and it’s incredibly important to us to design products that empower creatives all over the world,” said Tor Myhren, the company’s VP of marketing communications. “Our goal is to always celebrate the myriad of ways users express themselves and bring their ideas to life through iPad. We missed the mark with this video, and we’re sorry.”
Interestingly, Google used the same language to conclude its apology for its generative AI’s historical depictions of race. It explained its intention with flowery language and then said “But it’s missing the mark here”.
I wonder if we’ll be seeing more of this type of response to corporate tone-deafness (a generous term) going forward. Big “I’m sorry you feel that way (but this isn’t indicative of any problems with me)” vibes.
The problem isn’t that people didn’t like something you did. the problem you need to address is why they didn’t like it.
Corporate apologies like this prove that they observed people unhappy about something. It reads like an apology to investors for making people unhappy, not an apology to the people who got angry. It would be ten times better to say nothing at all.
Why do PR departments keep doing this? Do they think statements like these work better than actual apologies?
Apple TV ad features actor who climbs out of TV screen and punches every viewer in the face.
Apple spokesperson Captain Obvious releases statement saying that iPad is meant to celebrate the integrity of its users’ intact noses and front teeth, and that inflicting blunt-force facial trauma on eight million people “missed the mark”.
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