Best Takes In-Store Display Cashing In On Heath Ledger's Death Very Seriously
WHO: Best Buy
WHAT: Hours after actor Heath Ledger's death, a Best Buy store already had a table set up with his DVDs on sale, urging customers to "remember a great actor through his great performances."
THE QUOTE: "Please be certain Best Buy takes matters of this nature very seriously. In reviewing your concerns with the management team at our Mission Valley store, they have concluded that the display was inappropriate in light of Mr. Ledger's recent passing and have removed it from the sales floor."
(Thanks to Samuel!)
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Oh come on people. If you wanted one of his movies you'd be bitching Best Buy didn't anticipate your needs and have them laid out on velvet for you.
They KNEW people would be coming in and asking about it all day, and that they'd have OTHER customers with actual questions other than "Hey you know that guy, that died? Like what movies was he in? Where he fucked that cowboy?" and figured they'd head them off at the pass. I don't see the big deal.
I don't know. Given the fact that a few of Heath Ledger's movies are near the top of Amazon's sales, it does seem like they are reacting to consumer demand.
I remember a while back, I worked at Discovery Communications right after 9/11 and they were working on programming involving the incident. A lot of employees felt they were capitilizing on the tragedy, but people wanted information and were tuning in to that type of programming for one reason or another.
Actually, bookstores do this on a regular basis. The second they hear an author has passed away, they print up a (much more tasteful) sign that has the authors name, birth year and death year, and make a prominent display of their titles. Then they order up a handful of extra copies to anticipate demand.
Because there is always a demand. It might be low, but it's there. So really, you have to wonder which is worse: the fact that they did this and appear to be cashing in, or the fact that their customers probably picked the table clean and were making special trips to get more of his movies the second they heard he'd died?
@AlisonAshleigh: If you wanted one of his movies you'd be bitching Best Buy didn't anticipate your needs and have them laid out on velvet for you.
You make a good troll. Best Buy bending over backwards to anticipate my needs? Wow. That's some powerfully amazing stuff. Perhaps they first focus their efforts in a manner that is less offensive?
Seriously, though, the though of Best Buy "anticipating my needs" is laughable. And they failed to anticipate my need for dignity.
Sick. Cashing in on someone's untimely death. Just sick.
@shan6: I'd love to see the sales data for Heath Ledger's movies for the month or so after his death versus maybe the previous six months.
I don't particularly find the display ghoulish or whatever. Again, I'm sure many people are curious about his work and want to watch some of his movies.
@shan6: I worked retail during the passing of several famous authors and actors. I can promise you that she's right, there is a high demand and that customers have probably been coming in all day to ask about it.
The wording of the sign isn't very good, but the fact is that customers are coming in and asking for it. And it makes it easier for them and employees to put the titles in a central location.
Also, I have seen several customers who come in before we had put up a display who said, "You should put up some kind of display, people will be asking for this stuff!"
Never underestimate the current celebrity gossip glutton.
@mantari: Oh honestly. Anytime someone posts something someone disagrees with, the "TROLL!!!!" comments come a-flyin.
My point wasn't so much that Saint Best Buy is here and ready for whatever you could ever dream up and desire. The point was thats its a pain in the ass to have people asking the same question 100x a day, and they probably saw this coming. If they had put a big screen TV up with a sign that said "HEATH LEDGER IS DEAD BUT YOU CAN WATCH HIM IN HI-DEF!!!!" I might be a little upset, but this? not so much.
I don't think its a horrible idea, maybe sticking it on a table with that crappy sign is, but really, things like this put the guy in the front of peoples minds, and they typically will be interested in buying his stuff (an example being when I couldn't find Slaughterhouse-Five anywhere in stores shortly after Vonnegut passed, because everyone started buying his books).
Possibly a tastefully done end of aisle display with more appropriate signage would have been a better option...
on a serious note, i'd probably o.d. intentionally if ia had to hang out with either of the olsen twins.
@snoop-blog: Yep, I've heard of 'em. And while there are plenty of celebrities I might be more inclined to say are on the fast track to being six feet under, I still think it's sad to try and make money off of it. There's a thing called respect for the dead, and Best Buy is just tacky.
I don't know maybe I'm just over-sensitive. :P
Exactly right. If setting up a table with his movies is wrong, should they instead go in the opposite direction, and remove his movies from the shelves in his memory?
If the Biography Channel or a movie channel scheduled some programming associated with Ledger, would that be offensive? After all, they would be profitting from his demise.
I dont understand why they death of an actor or author would spur sales of movies and books anyway. I buy movies I like when they come out. I dont watch the news and say "Oh, so and so died, I just HAVE to have his movies now." Why would someone want to watch a movie just because someone in it died. People make no sense
@AlisonAshleigh: There is a balance between dignity and commercialism. (And a lack of dignity certainly impacts commercial success.) People said that Best Buy just didn't make the right balance. Best Buy agreed.
i want to have the first company to take something "semi-seriously" ...........
snoop-blog incorporated takes your concern,...with a grain of salt.
@snoop-blog: Well, from my experience with being a former electronics retail person (and thank Jebus for escaping THAT hell), the person who generally made most decisions regarding the displays in the merch and media sections were typically Sales Managers needing a boost in numbers. Though I wouldn't doubt there were minimum wage cronies throwing in ideas as well.
It's one thing to have a nice sign with the dates of birth and death done tastefully and their greatest works available...
It's another thing just to print out in word that they died and have those crappy blue tables out with the overt goal of trying to hock a dvd.
@mantari: I'm curious as to how many people complained. What percentage of the total customer base had an issue with it. It could be just a case of not wanting to deal with another headache so they took it down. If a few PITA customers came in and bitched, I don't know how well that represents the population as a whole.
Why would people want to buy a dvd or a book of someone who recently died? Some people make me sick.
Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public, though they are still ambulance chasers.
at first i thought this was disgusting. but i actually think the people that rush out to buy a fucking dvd of a dead person are more disgusting.
best buy, in all its disgustingness, is simply catering to these losers. what better way to celebrate a man's career than to BUY USELESS SHIT?
The wording on the sign is a bit off, but not a big deal.
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@meiran: (bookstores putting up displays when authors die)
I think the biggest difference here is that Heath Ledger was 28 and died unexpectedly.
When Normal Mailer died, it wasn't really a shock -- he was old. Putting up a tasteful display of his work WOULD be helpful.
When some other movie star dies of old age, a small display of her works might be useful too.
This is not tasteful, it's crass. It's not helpful, it's unpleasant.
Even if it were Britney who died, a display like this would be tasteless. It's in large part the manner in which someone died (expected? sudden? violently?) and their age (old? young? young but after illness?).
Dylan Thomas notwithstanding, society does mourn the deaths of young people more than the old.
Okay, say you're an idiot and rush out to Best Buy to buy a Heath Ledger movie because he's dead. Can't you locate Brokeback Mountain by yourself without the help of a Best Buy velvet table? Well, I guess if you're that dumb to begin with, maybe not.
Note: I was and am a big Heath Ledger fan. Just, you know, the thought of some asshole going "Hmm, dead Heath Ledger? I need to own A Knight's Tale!" makes me want to puke.
I hate Best Buy but the sign is cool. Hey the dude died. His movies are for sale. Stop making such a big deal. Who gives a rats ass. The sign say's heres the dead guys movie if ya want one buy one. If not move along.
I also think it's different when an movie actor dies than an author or director, because the dead actor "lives on" in his or her movies differently than an author "lives on" in his or her books.
Seeing the recently deceased all lively and well is more morbid (and morbidly fascinating) than reading a book.
@ninjatales:
As for people buying stuff after someone's death, I don't think it's cruel or gross as much as they were reminded of something: Oh yeah, I liked that movie|book.
After all, there aren't news stories headlined "Michael J Fox lives another day" to trigger their fond memories of Back to the Future and Teenwolf.
Best Buy: We're taking tastelessness to a whole new level.
I'll tell you who's made a lot of money off someone's death. Tupac's mother. That's who.
@public enemy #1: Percentage of people is not a relevant question.
This is something Best Buy can ask itself, "Is this something we want to do as policy?" [no]
"Is this something that would reflect poorly on the company if it was publicized?" [yes]
Best Buy doesn't want to be in the business of promoting death related media products. I can't say I blame them.
I would have printed out a list of Ledger's movie and made sure that the staff had a copy of said list. Instruct them to find the location of each movie so that if there is an uptick of Ledger-movie demands, my staff would be able to efficiently and quietly direct customers to the appropriate place. Anything more would be seen as offensive by some, anything less would be seen as being ineffective at anticipating a revenue-generating oppportunity.
And if they didn't make mention of it you'd be crying too. This site should be called complainerist.
@mantari: Err, no. Just no.
First off, these aren't 'Death-related media products' (what, do you work for Fox News?)- they're the movies of a (recently-)dead actor. Best Buy has all the right in the world to respond to customer demand - and there always will be instantaneous demand whenever an artist dies - and gather them for easier purchase. They're not advertising about it, they're not using a cardboard-cutout of Heath to hawk his own wares. There is no problem whatsoever with what they are doing here.
The first thing I did when I heard he died? I went on Youtube and watched him a@%*!#k Jake Gyllenhall. You can bet there were a lot of people that thought the same thing and went out to pick up a DVD.
This is just stupid. They should have left the sign up.
Cripes, even record companies wait longer than this to put out "re-issues" and "compilations". It's usually a year before they do that.
This is just plain tasteless.
I guess none of the complainers have investments. This kind of quick thinking is how fortunes are made-- it's the American way!
It's inappropriate to sell a dead actor's films? Huh?
Christ, the corpse wasn't even cold yet either. That's f'd up.