The value of the "We messed up" tour (Destiny)

by ManKitten , The Stugotz is strong in me., Thursday, September 24, 2026, 17:49 (10 hours, 10 minutes ago) @ Avateur

I'm starting this post while watching the Marathon video and it has me curious as to how it all pans out. I've mentioned before (while I didn't expect anyone here to keep that in memory) that my profession is in marketing. My education is in graphic design and I've spent 20 years on the creative side of marketing...though I've never had a formal marketing education. Over the years, I've taken interest in the concept of Behavioral Marketing. Digesting data and creating material that hooks in your brain. I want to "cut you off at the pass" to get your attention when you don't even realize I've been following since two towns ago.

But sometimes, a company either gets so far ahead, or falls so far behind the caravan...they've completely lost touch with the group. Sometimes, that company recognizes they may be circling the drain unless that make a drastic change. Enter, the "We messed up" tour.

The first example of this (since I was paying attention to things) was Dominos pizza.
https://medium.com/better-marketing/how-dominos-revitalized-its-failing-brand-77e9dec19ac3
They created a campaign discussing how terrible their pizza had become. They made improvements and it improved their business.

Sticking with pizza, Papa Johns had a somewhat similar campaign after their CEO was an asshat on the regular.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/18/papa-johns-to-air-first-new-tv-ad-campaign-since-founders-ouster.html
The campaign yielded results.

Burger King is currently running this tour with the CEO giving out "his" number that you can call and air your grievances. Apparently, one of the people behind the Dominoes campaign is running this one too!
https://www.leanblog.org/2026/06/admitting-mistakes-leadership/
That writer didn't seem sold yet on Burger King, but through osmosis, I've heard good things.

So now Bungie has released videos regarding Destiny and Marathon, both of which taking the stance of "we messed up...but we want to make it better." I'm intrigued to see how it all plays out. The video made a point to highlight "unedited" interviews. Transparency and all that. (Of course they could have interviewed 20 people and they picked the one interview they didn't have to edit...but...)
Superficially, the Marathon video seemed more candid and honest, while the Destiny video was very much two people reading a script.

But hey...whether on behalf of your business, or personally...it's tough to say "I f***ed up" But it's the first step to healing and improvement. I hope this effort works for Bungie. I hope Destiny finds "New Light". I would be excited if Marathon becomes a gameI want to play! It has the pedigree, it has good bones!

What say y'all?