Why Saying Sorry Is the Sharpest Brand Move Right Now
I have been watching brand apologies the way other people watch test cricket. Slowly. With snacks. With opinions that get more fixed by the hour. In 2026, sorry is not a weakness, it is a craft. And most brands still get it wrong by treating it like legal housekeeping, or worse, a mood.
The good ones understand something very Kiwi. We are allergic to spin. We can smell a committee sentence from the end of the driveway. When a brand stuffs up, and they all do, the public is not waiting for perfection. We are waiting for acknowledgement. Name the mistake. Say who was affected. Say what changes on Monday, not in some future roadmap that smells like a stalling tactic.
What fascinates me is the medium. The strongest apologies lately are not glossy press releases. They are pinned comments. They are straight emails. They are short videos filmed in offices that look like actual offices, with chairs that do not match and a plant that is dying quietly in the corner. No dramatic music. No brand manifesto creeping in through the back door.
There is a generosity in a clean apology. It invites the audience back into the relationship. It says, we messed up, we are still here, and we are listening. In a country where everyone knows someone who knows someone, that tone matters. Marketing does not always need to persuade. Sometimes it just needs to show up, take a breath, and say sorry like it means it.
The good ones understand something very Kiwi. We are allergic to spin. We can smell a committee sentence from the end of the driveway. When a brand stuffs up, and they all do, the public is not waiting for perfection. We are waiting for acknowledgement. Name the mistake. Say who was affected. Say what changes on Monday, not in some future roadmap that smells like a stalling tactic.
What fascinates me is the medium. The strongest apologies lately are not glossy press releases. They are pinned comments. They are straight emails. They are short videos filmed in offices that look like actual offices, with chairs that do not match and a plant that is dying quietly in the corner. No dramatic music. No brand manifesto creeping in through the back door.
There is a generosity in a clean apology. It invites the audience back into the relationship. It says, we messed up, we are still here, and we are listening. In a country where everyone knows someone who knows someone, that tone matters. Marketing does not always need to persuade. Sometimes it just needs to show up, take a breath, and say sorry like it means it.