Dive Brief:
- Best Buy was the latest brand to misguidedly tweet on Thursday when it made light of murder with a tweet that read: "We have everything you need. Unless you need a payphone. #serial."
- The tweet was in reference to a podcast from This American Life that investigates the real-life murder of a high-schooler outside of a Best Buy. A big part of the mystery revolves around a detail in which the alleged killer made a call from a payphone in parking lot—a payphone that may or may not actually have been in existence.
- The tweet quickly gathered hundreds of responses about the bad taste of the tweet and the retail brand removed the tweet and issued an apology.
We deeply apologize for our earlier tweet about Serial. It lacked good judgment and doesn’t reflect the values of our company. We are sorry.
— Best Buy (@BestBuy) December 11, 2014
Dive Insight:
Best Buy certainly isn't even close to be the first brand to exercise bad judgment on Twitter—but it may be the first to make light of a murder. It's understandable that Best Buy would want to jump in on the Serial phenomenon—it's the most-listened to podcast ever and Best Buy plays a big role in the mystery—but the tweet obviously wasn't the way to go. Apologizing did seem to be only route to go, and the chain did so quickly.
