10 CEO Apologies That Made Things Worse

#10: Chip Wilson

Lululemon

2013 was not a good year for this legging brand. First, it had to recall a huge number of pants because they turned out to be see-through. Then, when asked about the pilling problems with the pricey pants during a Bloomberg interview, founder and chairman Chip Wilson blamed customers’ body types. The backlash was swift. Many people interpreted Wilson’s remarks as fat-shaming and implying that Lululemon was only for skinny rich people. Wilson issued an apology video on Facebook – and that didn’t go down well either. He doesn’t apologize to the customers he alienated. Instead, he apologizes to Lululemon employees for having to deal with the consequences of his comments. It was a strange choice, and Wilson stepped down as chair a month later.

#9: Braden Wallake

HyperSocial

Is there anything cringier than a crying selfie? How about a crying selfie posted by a CEO after laying people off? Braden Wallake, CEO of HyperSocial, made that mistake in 2022. He posted a photo of himself in tears after conducting layoffs at his company, blaming himself for a bad business decision and saying he wished he only cared about money and not the people he hurt. Here’s a tip for business owners out there. If you have to fire people, don’t make it about you. They’re the ones who just lost their jobs and whose lives have been upended. No one cares how much you’re upset at that moment.

#8: Ying Liu

Kyte Baby

You’d think that a female CEO of a baby products company would be more sympathetic to a new mom. Kyte Baby offered just two weeks of paid maternity leave, so when Marissa Hughes’ adopted son was born several months premature, she knew he’d be in the hospital much longer than that. Hughes asked to work remotely so she could stay by his side, but CEO Ying Liu refused, and when Hughes didn’t return to work when her two weeks was up, she was fired. Liu issued an apology on TikTok which was immediately slammed for being scripted and insincere. She was forced to issue a second, unscripted apology the same day just to prove she was a human being and not an unfeeling monster.

#7: Andi Owen

MillerKnoll

After this furniture company’s sales slumped in 2023, the CEO was not happy that employees were worried about their bonuses. In a Zoom meeting, Owen lectured them for asking about the bonuses and told them to get out of “pity city.” Considering that most of the sales associates at MillerKnoll make well under $100,000 a year, while Owen herself makes $5 million, the comments were incredibly out of touch. The company’s reaction to the backlash didn’t help. First they doubled down, releasing a statement saying Owen’s remarks were taken out of context. Then, Owen sent out a company-wide email with a classic non-apology apology, saying she was sorry if her “rallying cry seemed insensitive.” We can’t imagine it made employees feel much better.

#6: Shigehisa Takada

Takata

If you just look at the words of this apology, it seems fine. It’s the company’s behavior leading up to this moment that makes the apology ring hollow. Takata produced airbags for dozens of car brands. Those airbags had a tendency to explode, sending shrapnel flying at the car’s occupants. Mass recalls started in 2013, and Takata wasn’t exactly cooperative. The company insisted that the problem was caused by heat and humidity, and that recalls in colder climates were unnecessary. That was false. It also denied that it was at fault for months, placing blame on a Mexican subsidiary. CEO Shigehisa Takada avoided the spotlight and didn’t apologize until 2015, after at least eight people had died. The company has since gone bankrupt.

#5: John Schnatter

Papa John’s

Like Takada’s apology, this one is basically fine. The problem is how Schnatter behaved afterward. In 2017, he blamed football players kneeling during the National Anthem for reduced NFL viewership and Papa John’s drop in sales, since the company sponsored the league. Those comments weren’t well received. In 2018, Schnatter underwent training to avoid making more controversial remarks, and ironically, that’s when he made the statement that got him ousted from the company. During the training, he used the N-word, and the secret recording was leaked. Schnatter issued a straightforward apology right away, but the following year, he backtracked and doubled down. In an interview, Schnatter claimed the whole thing was an inside job, and that other executives had conspired to steal his company.

#4: Oscar Munoz

United Airlines

United could not have handled this situation any worse. In 2017, the airline kicked four customers off a flight so employees could deadhead. One was Dr. David Dao, a 69-year-old pulmonologist who refused to get off the plane because he had patients to treat the next day. United security slammed Dao’s face into an armrest, causing severe injuries, then dragged him off the plane. Munoz’s initial statement simply apologized for “having to re-accommodate these customers.” In a letter to employees, he described Dao as “disruptive and belligerent.” However, as videos of the incident sparked outrage, Munoz was forced to pivot. He issued another statement, this time actually apologizing to Dao. The next day, Munoz did a TV interview looking as contrite as he could manage.

#3: Michael Horn

Volkswagen

An apology doesn’t exactly sound sincere when you immediately blame someone else for what went wrong. Scandal broke in 2015 when the EPA discovered that Volkswagen was intentionally cheating on emissions tests using sophisticated software. When Michael Horn, CEO of the company’s U.S. division, testified to Congress, he started with a profuse apology. He then claimed that he and other executives had no idea the cheating was happening, and blamed everything on software engineers. Needless to say, the representatives at the hearing weren’t convinced. The company then offered diesel owners a $500 Visa debit card and a $500 gift card to use at a VW dealership. Like Horn’s testimony, the gesture fell flat.

#2: Brendan Whitworth

Anheuser-Busch

If you were alive in 2023, you probably heard about the backlash after Bud Light partnered with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney. When conservatives learned about the team-up, they lost their minds. Mulvaney received death threats and a flood of transphobic abuse, and Budweiser factories even received bomb threats. Two weeks later, CEO Brendan Whitworth issued a statement that was the closest the company ever got to an apology. He said Anheuser-Busch “never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people,” and that he just wanted to focus on beer. No mention of Mulvaney or what she’d gone through, no apology to employees or vendors. Whitworth appeared to simply wash his hands of the situation, and Mulvaney never heard from Bud Light again.

#1: Tony Hayward

BP

In 2010, the offshore drilling unit Deepwater Horizon exploded, killing 11 people and dumping over 200 million gallons of oil into the ocean. It was one of the biggest environmental disasters in history, and BP CEO Tony Hayward didn’t help the situation. In an interview, he apologized for disrupting people’s lives and said he wanted his own life back. It was an incredibly insensitive remark given the scale of the damage. Hayward followed it up with a disastrous Congressional hearing where he denied knowledge of basically everything related to the explosion. The company then released an official apology video detailing everything it would do to make things right, but it came across as a futile attempt to salvage its image.

Which of these CEO apologies makes you cringe the hardest? Let us know in the comments.