United Airlines remains in damage control mode after video of a passenger being forcibly removed from his seat and dragged down the aisle of a plane generated a public backlash. In the next step on its stumbling apology tour, United has announced that every other passenger who was on that flight will be compensated for their fare. [More]
mea culpa
Today In Badvertising: Pepsi Solves Social Strife With Soda; Nivea Says “White Is Purity”
By 4.5.17
Two major brands — Pepsi and Nivea — are under fire this week on social media for ads that some say are offensive and tone deaf. [More]
Julep Subscribers Mad After Receiving Almost-Expired Sunscreen Lipstick; Will Get Refunds
By 7.8.16
Sun-loving subscribers to the Julep beauty products service were psyched to see they could get lipstick with SPF 30 sunscreen protection. That is, until they opened their orders and found that the sunscreen would only be effective for a few more weeks. [More]
Customer Who Claimed Whole Foods Cake Featured Anti-Gay Slur Apologizes, Drops Lawsuit
By 5.16.16
A Texas pastor who had accused Whole Foods workers of adding an anti-gay message on a cake he ordered has dropped his lawsuit against the grocery chain, and offered up an apology for the apparent hoax. [More]
Apologetic Citizen Returns City’s Anti-Drug Sign 30 Years Later With Note, $50
By 4.7.16
Whoever stole a sign from New Smyrna Beach bearing an anti-drug message 30 years ago has returned the sign with an apology letter and $50 to cover reinstallation costs. [More]
Ohio Museum Apologizes After Employees Tell Woman To Stop Breastfeeding
By 3.23.16
An Ohio museum is clarifying that mothers are welcome to nurse their children on the property, after employees told a visiting woman that she had to stop breastfeeding. [More]
USPS To New York Town: Hey, Sorry For Delivering Blood-Stained Mail
By 2.19.16
Sometimes mail shows up ripped, twisted, soaked through, or otherwise damaged and you think, “Man, this is a bummer.” But residents of one New York town found their mail had been altered in a more disturbing way: it was smeared with blood. [More]
Chipotle CEO Apologizes For Making People Sick: “We Are Going To Be The Safest Place To Eat”
By 12.10.15
After Chipotle customers all over the country have fallen ill from eating at the chain’s restaurants, founder and co-CEO Steve Ells says he’s sorry the restaurant has caused so many to become sick, and promised to implement new food safety guidelines to help prevent such outbreaks from happening in the future. [More]
Tim Cook: Apple Employee Kicking Black Teens Out Of Store Was “Unacceptable”
By 11.13.15
Earlier this week, video showing an Apple store employee in Melbourne, Australia explaining to a group of black teens that they’d been asked to leave the premises because “we’re worried you might steal something.” The company apologized yesterday, saying Apple believes in equality “for everyone, regardless of race, age, gender, gender identity, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation.” CEO Tim Cook also addressed the situation in an email, calling the treatment of the teens “unacceptable.” [More]
United Airlines Apologizes To Disabled Passenger Who Crawled Off Flight
By 10.26.15
United Airlines has issued an apology to a disabled passenger who ended up crawling off the plane after he was told he’d have to wait another 15 to 20 minutes for a wheelchair, on top of the 15 minutes he waited for the other passengers to deplane and 15 minutes he’d already spent expecting his wheels. [More]
American Airlines Apologizes After Veteran Says He And His Service Dog Weren’t Allowed To Board Their Flight
By 9.22.15
American Airlines says it’s apologized to a retired U.S. Marine, after the veteran said he wasn’t allowed to board a flight he’d booked out of Los Angeles because he had his service dog with him. [More]
“Spam King” Pleads Guilty To Sending More Than 27M Unsolicited Facebook Messages
By 8.25.15
When your email or other messaging account is flooded with messages promising cheap$ R0lexes! and invitations to collect a million dollars from the estate of a long-lost foreign dignitary relative, it’s not easy to place the blame: is it a robot programmed for maximum annoyance? A wee, cackling, evil spam elf? Sometimes, it’s just a human: a man known as the “Spam King” has admitted in court that he’s behind more than 27 million unsolicited messages sent through Facebook’s servers. [More]
Google Subsidiary Apologizes For Including Concentration Camps In Mobile Game
By 7.2.15
It can be a good thing for game developers to include real-life sights in the unreal world of video games, but there are cases where such inclusions are simply unacceptable. This was the case for a unit of Google, which has apologized after including Nazi concentration camps as “portals” in a mobile role-playing game. [More]
Sprint Backpedals, Won’t Slow Video Speeds For Unlimited Data Customers
By 7.1.15
Well, that was fast: A day after Sprint stirred up the ire of customers with its new “All-In” unlimited plan that stuck users with 3G speeds for streaming video, the company has now reversed course. [More]
Houlihan’s Apologizes For Turning Away Veteran With Service Dog
By 5.27.15
National chain Houlihan’s has fired a manager at a Chicago-area restaurant and apologized to an Army war veteran who says he was refused a table for lunch on Sunday because he had his service dog with him. [More]
Under Armour Pulls “Band Of Ballers” Shirt Amid Criticism That It Echoes Iwo Jima Imagery
By 5.18.15
Under Armour is apologizing and promising to stop selling a T-shirt dubbed “Band of Ballers” after complaints that its image of basketball players raising a hoop closely mirrored the style of the Marine Corps War Memorial. That memorial is based on a famous photograph taken of soldiers raising a U.S. flag on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima during World War II. [More]
Meijer Offering $10 Coupon To Customers After Two Credit & Debit System Failures
By 3.19.15
Meijer is trying to win back customers with an apology and a $10 coupon, after customers were forced to either pay cash or abandon their shopping carts two days in a row last month. The retailer suffered two credit card system failures, two days in a row, that kept shoppers from paying for their goods with credit or debit cards. [More]
Facebook Says Hour-Long Global Outage Was Its Own Fault, Not The Work Of Hackers
By 1.27.15
After Facebook and Instagram went down around the world for about an hour earlier today, the social media giant announced that despite the claims of hackers on Twitter, it’s placing the blame squarely on itself, saying it was a self-inflicted outage. [More]
