This week, you’ve definitely opened Instagram or TikTok and been smacked in the face by a brand apology letter. But don’t worry, they’re not actually sorry for anything real, and it’s just another viral trend.
There’s no corporate scandal, or PR meltdown. No, they’re issuing formal, serious, CEO-signed apology statements… for being “too good”, “too iconic”, or “unreasonably irresistible”.
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This is the “apology letter trend”, and it’s been taken too far.
The format is always the same: A slightly boring, corporate-looking block of text in a fake press-release layout, all to announce something like: “We apologise for making fries that are simply too addictive.” It’s giving crisis-communication energy for something that is absolutely not a crisis.
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The trend actually started in the Philippines, where brands used it as a fun, self-aware marketing gimmick. It worked because it was unexpected, a little ridiculous, and genuinely funny the first time. But like all things on the internet, the moment one brand pulls it off, everyone else sprints in to copy it.
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One Reddit user summed it up perfectly in a rant titled “Can we please stop milking the Apology Letter marketing trend???” They’re right. After Qatari-based technology firm Snoonu’s post went viral, every other brand trying it immediately looked like the copycat.
What started as clever now feels painfully forced. Brands want to look human and self-aware, but the more they recycle this joke, the more it feels like one giant corporate group chat where no one has the guts to say, “Guys… it’s over.”
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Featured image credit: Instagram/@snickers, TikTok/@cantfindmatty
