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Indie rock band YACHT have issued an apology over their "sex tape" hoax and their feeble justification for it.
On Wednesday morning, YACHT duo Jona Bechtolt and Claire L. Evans released a statement on their Facebook page, apologizing for claiming they were the victims of a malicious act of revenge porn and later explaining it away as a project designed to "explore the intersection of privacy, media, and celebrity."
"The reaction to this endeavor highlights a glaring error we made in positioning ourselves as the victims of a leaked sex tape," Bechtolt and Evans wrote. "We understand that positioning it that way from the beginning was an egregious mistake, and are so ashamed we hadn't considered this beforehand."
It continued:
We take full responsibility for what has happened, and we are truly sorry. We know we've broken a bond of trust with many of our fans and friends. Thank you to those that called us out and helped us to understand the gravity of the mistake we made. We should not have hinged this entire project on the fiction that we were the victims of a leaked tape, and we're equally disappointed in ourselves for taking so long to get over being shocked at the response and write this apology. After all is said and done, of course you should be mad at us. We're mad at us too.
Yesterday's reveal immediately drew criticism across the board:
Playing the victim + exploiting your fans as a PR stunt isn't some bold, cutting edge shit- it's just a real shitty asshole thing to do.
— Best Coast (@BestCoast) May 10, 2016
Even the band's own PR distanced themselves from the stunt:
It's time to state this.
— Judy MillerSilverman (@motormouthmedia) May 10, 2016
We are not involved in the Yacht situation in any way the idea was devised and executed 100% without us.
The "sex tape" turned out to be a part of their new music video which, oh by the way, was also released on Wednesday morning.