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A common [[crisis management]] tactic is to apologise in an attempt to defuse a public controversy and pave the way for the company or individual to move on to a strategy for rebuilding rebuild their reputation.

Releasing a survey on corporate reputation, the deputy chairman of [[Burson Marsteller]] U.K. [[Gavin Grant]] said "When you have an angry audience, trust in corporate and political leaders declines significantly. Before an audience is willing to engage their trust again they want to see the leader acknowledge the error".<ref name="Trust">[http://www.prweek.com/newsuk/search/article/news_story.cfm?ID=226353&site=1// "Leaders say CEOs ‘should mend trust’"], ''PR Week'', October 29, 2004.</ref>

Martin Langford, the co-founder of the U.K. company [[Kissmann Langford]] and crisis-management expert, told ''PR Week'' "If any corporation has an issue or crisis on their plate, at the very least the spokesperson or CEO should demonstrate absolute concern. A formal apology is only appropriate if the corporation is clearly wrong in its actions or policies and is engulfed in a self-created crisis. Then it is totally appropriate."<ref name="Johnson">Mark Johnson, "[http://www.prweek.com/newsuk/search/article/news_story.cfm?ID=226643// The PR benefit of a public apology]", ''PR Week'', November 5, 2004. (Sub reqd).</ref>

"People think that if a full apology is made, the crisis strategy is over. It is not. It is just beginning," he said.<ref name="Johnson"/>

The senior vice-chairman of [[Weber Shandwick]] and former Sun editor David Yelland told ''PR Week'' "The first thing you must accept is that some corporate errors are so bad that, to be honest, no one's going to accept your apology. You just have to accept that you have done wrong, as I had to accept The Sun had done wrong over Hillsborough.' [http:"<ref name="Trust"//www.prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=226643]>

==Other Articles and Resources=====Related SourceWatch resourcesArticles===

==External links=References===*"[http:<references//www.prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID> ===External links==226353&site=1 Leaders say CEOs 'should mend trust']", ''PR Week'', October 29 2004. (Sub reqd). *Mark Johnson, "[http://www.prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=226643 News Analysis: The PR benefit of a public apology]", ''PR Week'', November 5, 2004. (Sub reqd).