Apology Advertising

Tiger and Earl Woods are doing it. Toyota is doing it. Owning up to mistakes isn’t easy in any form, let alone via a medium that’s never been about realism as much as it is about fantasies of success and perfection. Yet, in part because of this context, these examples strike a powerful chord. It’s likely that when we have a some distance from the history that made these ads possible we’ll see how unvarnished honesty worked where skirting the issue with highly crafted brand hoo-ha couldn’t.

We all love a comeback. Both Toyota and Tiger are fighting to regain our love and admiration. We all love a good fight. It’s even possible that the battle scars emerging on both these brands will reveal something even more important to their survival than success and perfection: character.