Ten days after Martha Stewart shared a Halloween Instagram post of herself dressed as a homeless person, she is still apologizing for it, and crisis management experts say each attempt has made things worse.
In the initial since-deleted post, Stewart wore ripped jeans and a beaten flannel, with what looked like dirt across her face. She was frowning as she posed with a sign that said, “I AM HUNGRY HELP ME!!”
She deleted the post on Nov. 1, then issued a statement to Page Six saying she was “distressed” to learn she had offended people with the costume and claimed it “was intended to bring more awareness to the very serious subject of homelessness.”
Hours later, she shared another apology on Instagram, which she has since deleted. “It’s hard to admit when you’ve really screwed up,” the post said. “Wearing a costume like I did was insensitive and not funny. I am very sorry.”
Then, fans filmed Stewart at the CrossCountry Mortgage Sales Rally in Orlando on Nov. 3, blaming “Today” host Craig Melvin, who had accidentally spilled chocolate ganache on her sweater while they filmed together on Oct. 30.
“I only have 10 minutes to get dressed for this Halloween party,” she told fans in the clip. “So, the easiest costume was to get dressed up as, you know, a bum.”
Stewart then sat with Melvin on “The Today Show” set on Nov. 6 to apologize again.
“I made a mistake,” she said. “I was stupid, what else can I say? I am so sorry, and I hope that my followers and my fans and the rest of America forgive me for doing something that was not meant in any way to be a bad thing.”
When Melvin asked Stewart why she blamed him, she said, “I didn’t have a costume because you had spilled some chocolate on my white sweater, and I don’t blame you at all. It was a joke that I said I blamed you. It was stupid.”
“The Today Show” did not respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
Experts Emphasize The First 24 Hours
Evan Nierman, the CEO of crisis PR firm Red Banyan, told HuffPost that Stewart mishandled the vital first 24 hours after she posted her photo.
“She came off as defensive and shifty, attempting to explain her costume before apologizing for it,” Nierman said. “Her team needed one powerful statement on day one, because every rewrite and deletion afterward signaled that she was trying to manage a crisis and justify her decision rather than sincerely atone for a mistake.”
Nierman suggested that Stewart blaming Melvin gave the already fading story a second life. “Pinning the costume on someone else, even as a joke, made Stewart’s apology look even more hollow,” he said. “Every new comment just resurrects the controversy.”
Edwin Battistella, an emeritus linguistics professor at Southern Oregon University, who wrote “Sorry About That: The Language of Public Apology,” agreed that Stewart’s attempts to blame Melvin, along with Stewart’s early framing of her apology around people being offended, undercut whether she was sincere.
“Often, apologies get worse as a public figure seems to be throwing spaghetti at the wall, searching for something that will make a situation go away,” Battistella told HuffPost.
What Martha Stewart Should Have Done
“If I were Martha Stewart, I would have just said, ‘What I did was insensitive and wrong, and I have no excuse,’” Battistella said. “She could demonstrate sincerity by making a commitment to working to alleviate homelessness, [too].”
Bill McGowan, founder and CEO of Clarity Media Group, and author of “Pitch Perfect” and “Speak, Memorably,” pointed to the primacy recency effect theory, which argues that how people start and finish a conversation or speech are “disproportionately more remembered” than anything said in between, he said.
“Own it from the get-go, from your first sentence,” McGowan said. “Not starting to qualify it with, ‘Well, you know, I was rushed, and you spilled chocolate on me.’ Nobody cares.”
McGowan was also unimpressed by the “Today” sit-down. “She looked like somebody held a gun to her head and forced her out onto the set,” he said.
Martha Stewart’s Biggest Problem Is That Costume
Stewart initially said the costume was meant to raise awareness of homelessness. Davia Temin, president and CEO of crisis management consultancy Temin and Company, told HuffPost that this excuse only works if there is a ring of truth to it. That does not seem to be the reality in Stewart’s case, Temin said.
“Come on. You’ve got to be cognizant of what in the moment is going to not offend and what over a longer period of time could offend that you can’t even see right now,” Temin said. “Just stop with the constant apologies and little snide comments — the joke about “The Today Show” host. She should’ve just stopped.”
The context of the photo is also significant. Stewart, who is worth an estimated $400 million, was standing in front of her house — likely her primary residence, a 153-acre estate in Katonah, New York. The photo caption was also about candles she was selling on QVC, not anything about resources to help homelessness.
“Here she is, holding up this sign, and in front of her is a dog that obviously cost thousands of dollars from a breeder, and behind her are sconces on her house that also cost thousands of dollars,” McGowan said.
HuffPost did not find any evidence that Stewart has donated to a cause that supports homelessness since her post. Stewart’s go-to charity, God’s Love We Deliver, cooks and delivers meals to people living with severe and chronic illness, but does not directly serve the homeless population.
Stewart’s team did not respond to HuffPost’s request for comment as of publication.
McGowan pointed out that Stewart should have taken advantage of Melvin bringing up their Thanksgiving episode during their sit-down.
“She missed a really golden opportunity in the end to tie Thanksgiving back to giving thanks if you have food to put on the table [and] doing something in your community to help serve people who are underserved,” McGowan said. “Visuals have more lasting power than just a dumb quote.”
Temin suggested Stewart go bigger, such as buying a thousand turkeys to distribute to homeless families around the country, along with best wishes. Without a gesture like that, she said, the story is unlikely to fade.
“This is a moment when everybody would rather talk about Martha Stewart than everything that’s going on in the world,” Temin added.