Circles.Life admits race-related IG post was 'tone deaf', promises to do better

Circles.Life has apologised on Instagram, accepting that its race-related initial posts were "tone deaf". The latest post reads: "We messed up. We're sorry. We made an error in judgement and we didn’t give this topic the thoughtfulness it deserves."

The statement attributed to its head of marketing, Delbert Stanley Ty who further elaborated that the brand did not see the gravity of the issue when executing its intention of celebrating "diversity in a light-hearted manner".

"We get it now. We thank our customers for holding us accountable. Our team is reflecting and discussing the way forward. We promise to do better,” Ty said. Its post has received 104 likes within 23 minutes of being published. The post now sees comments appreciating the brand for its "recovery done right". 

The brand has seen an intense couple of days following its initial race-related Instagram post. The quick reaction of netizens on its initial post saw the brand receive over 1,000 comments that shared the sentiment of mostly anger. The brand's attempt at making the situation right with a second Instagram post only saw it receive another wave of backlash from netizens within the same day. While some netizens labelled the reaction as “one of the worst responses to a PR disaster” in the comment section, Circles.Life firmly stood by its post saying that it will continue with the conversation then. 

Ty had then said, "We know that our post has stirred conversation and we're not shying away from it. Instead, we're giving power back to our customers by asking how they would have written the post, if it was up to them. We aren't just anti-racist, we're pro-people. We simply don't see race, because we see people as people".

Aside from this, Circles.Life made headlines in April for its Circles.Life Family Plan that was said to be more inclusive, allowing people to share their telco benefits without restrictions. This means that unlike its competitors, sign-ups for Circles.Life's family plan are not restricted to traditional families who live under the same roof. This comes as the telco believes that families today can be any group of people brought together by blood, circumstance, love, or shared interests.

This includes sports teammates, board game night gang or any other aspect that brings groups of people together. The family plan is also meant to include non-traditional families that may not have housing privileges, such as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBTQ) families, single-parent families, and divorced families. Even singles below the aged of 35 years old are roped into Circles.Life's definition of a non-traditional family. 

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