SORRY, WE’RE NOT APOLOGISING

As marketers, we’re always hunting for the next trend bandwagon to jump on. It’s an easy – and, dare we say, lazy? – way of capturing eyeballs, stopping the scroll, riding a viral wave. 

The wave sweeping social media right now is the Apology Letter. Unless you’ve found your way to Mars, you’ve seen them. We’re sorry our food is too good, We’re sorry our cars are so awesome, We’re sorry we’re just too cool for school. They’re everywhere. You can practically hear the boardroom brainstorm: “We need something viral. Can we do one of those apology posts?”

Sure, the nudge-nudge-wink-wink irony was fun for a while. But is it still? At what point does viral bandwagoning go from instantly shareable to instant eye-roll? Maybe right about now.

It may have started as a clever subversion, but now the faux humility and self-aware smirk has turned into a staid formula. The first few brands that pulled off, they got points for irony. The tenth? Maybe a few chuckles. But now? What once seemed fresh and fun is invoking a “Please, no, not another one” fatigue.

This, right here, is the problem with meme marketing. It’s built on velocity, not longevity, and the faster it spreads, the faster it burns out. What began as a way to stand out now just makes you blend in if you haven’t timed it just right. In trying to make your brand seem more relatable, you run the risk of coming off desperate to stay relevant. And today’s consumers are savvy enough to see right through brands that aren’t being authentic. 

The trap many marketers fall into is mistaking virality for value. A post that gets shared a million times can still leave zero impression of what you actually stand for. When your tone or your joke or your clever meme is indistinguishable from every other brand in the feed, you’ve suddenly become part of the noise you were trying to break through.

There’s also the matter of personality fit. Not every brand has the cultural permission to be ironic; not every audience relates to it. Before memeifying your marketing, you’ve got to ask yourself if this is who you are as a brand, or if it’s going to come off as the equivalent of that dad trying to use Gen Z slang. 

Now, of course, we’re not saying that trends can’t be useful, even necessary. The best marketers take the cultural spark and make it their own. They pick moments that matter to their customers. The rest simply copy, paste, and hope the algorithm shows mercy. Creative marketing is not a Mad Libs game of ‘We’re sorry our ___ is too ___”, fill in the blanks, post and wait for the likes. 

Not every trend deserves your attention. Be the one that resists a trend that is not a brand fit.
Some brands speak louder by staying true to who they are. We prefer building communication that earns connection- not just clicks. And We’re not sorry we don’t sound like everyone else.