“Me Desculpem se Fui Mal Interpretado!”: Tentativas de Retratação Pública do Grupo Madero em um Contexto de Crise

Débora Cristina Soares; Cintia Rodrigues de Oliveira

doi:10.5020/2318-0722.2025.31.e15522

Authors

Débora Cristina Soares Federal University of Uberlândia, Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, Brazil https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7559-8893
Cintia Rodrigues de Oliveira Federal University of Uberlândia, Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, Brazil https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7999-9002

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5020/2318-0722.2025.31.e15522

Keywords:

organizational storytelling, antenarrative, Grupo Madero, neutralization attempts, COVID-19

Abstract

Organizations tell their stories through advertising, corporate videos, and other media resources, including digital platforms, to reaffirm their organizational identity, values, and marketing strategies. This article examines how the public retraction by Grupo Madero’s founder reconfigured organizational identity during a reputational crisis concerning the number of deaths during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in 2020. The study used documentary research and narrative analysis. The research corpus comprised talks by entrepreneur Luiz Durski Júnior available on YouTube, corporate videos, and two statements about the COVID-19 pandemic posted on his Instagram account. The analysis identified an attempt to separate the entrepreneur’s narrative from Grupo Madero’s narrative through the following neutralization attempts: a culture of denial, partial acknowledgment and isolation, denial of intent, and, finally, an apology. Attempts to evade responsibility operated as a contested arena that reconstructed the meanings of organizational storytelling, allowing the entrepreneur to move between denial and accountability. As a contribution to organizational studies, the research highlights how social platforms can reconfigure organizational identity and how consumers engaged on social media can reject organizational narratives and engage in boycotts.

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Translations of this article

“Forgive Me if I Was Misunderstood!”: Grupo Madero’s Attempts at Public Retraction During a Crisis (English)

Author Biographies

Débora Cristina Soares, Federal University of Uberlândia, Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, Brazil

PhD candidate in Business Administration at Federal University of Uberlândia (UFU), where she also earned her master’s degree in Business Administration (2023), and holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG, 2017). Temporary lecturer at UFU, with experience in business administration, particularly human resources and personnel administration. Her research focuses on organizational studies, critical management studies, corporate crime, reflexivity, and gender.

Cintia Rodrigues de Oliveira, Federal University of Uberlândia, Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, Brazil

PhD in Business Administration from FGB/EAESP and Level II Research Productivity Fellow of the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq). Visiting Fellow at The Open University, UK. Associate Professor at UFU and Director of the Faculty of Management and Business (FAGEN/UFU, 2021–2024). Her research focuses on organizational studies, particularly gender, culture and power, organizational discourse, corporate crime, and the dark side of organizations.

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