Corporate Apologia
Image Source: Anthony Quintano from Honolulu, HI, United States, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Use the table below to browse the archive. Click a column heading to sort the entries, or click a linked name to open the full case page.
| Accused | Accusation | Year of Apologia |
|---|---|---|
| AT&T | Power outage in New York City | 1991 |
| Bernard Madoff | Ponzi scheme with investors | 2009 |
| Dow Chemical Company | Developing napalm during Vietnam | 1968 |
| Jack in the Box | E-coli deaths resulting from contaminated meat | 1993 |
| JetBlue Airways | Grounding of flights for six days due to ice storm at JFK | 2007 |
| Toyota | Recall of automobiles | 2010 |
| Exxon | Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska's Prince William Sound that caused irreparable environmental damage. | 1989 |
| New York Times | False information about ACORN | 2010 |
| Domino's Pizza | Employees contaminating pizza in YouTube video | 2009 |
| Starbucks | Employees charged 9/11 rescue workers for water | 2001 |
| Johnson & Johnson | Cyanide poisoning in Tylenol Extra-Strength capsules killed 7 Chicagoans. | 1982 |
| Union Carbide | Gas leak in Bhopal, India, that killed 19,000 and affected 500,000 more | 1984 |
| Walmart | Website recommends that buyers of the Planet of the Apes video might also be interested in a Martin Luther King Jr. video | 2006 |
| Michael Lynton, CEO, Sony Entertainment | Caving to North Korean demands to stop the release of the film The Interview | 2015 |
| Scott Rudin and Amy Pascal, Sony Pictures | Sony hack released emails attacking Angelina Jolie | 2014 |
| Samsung | Samsung Galaxy Note 7 batteries overheating and catching on fire | 2017 |
| Applebee's | Serving alcohol to 15-month-old in an apple juice cup. | 2011 |
| Netflix | Splitting up Netflix combined streaming/DVD mail package and charging separately for each | 2011 |
| Taco Bell | Lawsuit claiming that Taco Bell's beef is only 36% real beef | 2011 |
| Las Vegas Motor Speedway | Unsafe track conditions at Las Vegas Motor Speedway that resulted in crash and death of Dan Wheldon | 2011 |
| Best Buy | Overcharging for bottled water after Hurricane Harvey hits Houston | 2017 |
| Equifax | Cybersecurity breach that exposed personal data of 143 million Americans | 2017 |
| Harvey Weinstein | Sexually harassing women for nearly three decades. | 2017 |
| MoviePass | Outage of its service from lack of funds | 2018 |
| Salt City Tattoo | "Rape Kit" as white elephant gift at Christmas Party | 2017 |
| The Mayo Clinic | For its founder desecrating the body of Native American "Cut Nose" | 2018 |
| Eric Yuan, CEO of Zoom | Security breaches in Zoom video conferencing platform | 2020 |
| McDonald’s (China) | Posting a sign disallowing black people from entering restaurant | 2020 |
| Kentucky Fried Chicken (United Kingdom) | Chicken shortage in the U.K. due to a change in its supplier. | 2018 |
| hatWRKS | Selling patches with a yellow Star of David and the text "not vaccinated" following push for Covid-19 vaccinations | 2021 |
| St. Johns County School District | Digitally altering yearbook photos to make girls more modestly dressed | 2021 |
| Chung Yong-jin | Starbucks Korea promoted a politically insensitive tumbler | 2026 |
| PepsiCo | Dangerous conditions during the filming of a Pepsi commercial led to Michael Jackson's hair starting on fire. | 2009 |
| Mark Zuckerberg | Facebook data breach | 2018 |
| Lululemon | Promotional event on the Great Wall of China featured a traditional Japanese drum. | 2026 |
| Charles Henderson – American Diabetes Association | Removing physicians from a scientific convention after they distributed an editorial that was critical of President Donald Trump. | 2026 |
| Oscar Munoz | Forcible removal of passenger on United Airlines flight. | 2017 |
| Pepsi | Promotional Threads post made light of sexual assault. | 2026 |
| Hilton/Hampton Inn | Hampton Inn in Minnesota denied reservations for government ICE agents. | 2026 |
| Taylor Farms/Taylor Fresh Foods | Contaminated lettuce caused diarrhea outbreak. | 2026 |
| Frida Baby | Sexually explicit advertising for baby products. | 2026 |
| Chip Wilson, Lululemon | Saying that some women's bodies don't work with his clothing line. | 2013 |
| eBay | Cyberstalking and harassment campaign directed at Ina and David Steiner, husband-and-wife publishers of an independent newsletter covering e-commerce companies. | 2024 |
| Apple | Intentionally building iPhones to slow down over time. | 2017 |
| Travis Kalanick, Uber | Arguing with Uber driver Fawzi Kamel about lowering of fares. | 2017 |
| Jeffrey Skilling, Enron | The energy company's off-balance-sheet partnerships, conflicts of interest, hidden debt, and the accuracy of information provided to investors | 2002 |
| David Glass – Walmart | Wal-Mart's decision to mark foreign goods as "Made in America" | 1992 |
| John Stumpf, Wells Fargo | Wells Fargo employees had opened roughly 1.5 million deposit accounts and applied for approximately 565,000 credit card accounts that had not been authorized by consumers. | 2016 |
| Gerry Cahill, Carnival Cruise Lines | A 2013 engine-room fire disabled the Carnival Triumph, stranding more than 3,100 passengers in difficult conditions. | 2013 |
| Martin Shkreli, Turing Pharmaceuticals | His company,Turing Pharmaceuticals, acquired a decades-old drug and raised its price from $13.50 to $750 per tablet. | 2018 |
| Harvard Medical School | Cedric Lodge, the former manager of the school's morgue, had stolen human remains from cadavers donated through Harvard's Anatomical Gift Program and participated in selling and transporting those remains across state lines. | 2026 |