After a thin-skinned Circuit City exec ordered stores carrying Mad Magazine to search and destroy all copies of a recent issue featuring a 4-page parody of “Sucker City,” someone with a brain stopped the madness. Here’s the surprisingly classy message we just got from corporate:
Hi, Ben,
I spotted the article about Circuit City and MAD Magazine on your site.
fyi, I became aware of this “situation” only this morning, and I have sent a note today to the Editors of MAD Magazine.
Speaking as “an embarrassed corporate PR Guy,” I apologized for the fact that some overly-sensitive souls at our corporate headquarters ordered the removal of the August issue of MAD Magazine from our stores. Please keep in mind that only 40 of our 700 stores sell magazines at all.
The parody of our newspaper ad in the August MAD was very clever. Most of us at Circuit City share a rich sense of humor and irony…but there are occasional temporary lapses.
We apologize for the knee-jerk reaction, and have issued a retraction order; the affected stores are being directed to put the magazines back on sale.
As a gesture of our apology and deep respect for the folks at MAD Magazine, we are creating a cross-departmental task force to study the importance of humor in the corporate workplace and expect the resulting Powerpoint presentation to top out at least 300 pages, chock full of charts, graphs and company action plans.
In addition I have offered to send the MAD Magazine Editor a $20.00 Circuit City Gift Card, toward the purchase of a Nintendo Wii….if he can find one!
All the best,
Jim Babb
Corporate Communications
Circuit City Stores, Inc.
Richmond, VA
Let’s evaluate it on the 3-step system for fixing corporate gaffes:
1. Admitted they were wrong
2. Stopped doing the wrong thing
3. Made a material gesture of apology
Check check and check on all three, plus points for speed. You go, girls.
PREVIOUSLY: Circuit City Orders All Stores To Destroy Issue Of Mad Magazine Parodying “Sucker City”
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Leave it to the PR guy to recognize the appropriate response to a situation. Look, I know PR flacks can be annoying, but companies really need to run things by the publicity department so someone can gently point it out when the company is about to do something hopelessly bone-headed.
*cue “Yakkity Sax”*
a “humor” task force? I can only imagine what that would be like. although, good for them to admit that they shouldn’t have lost it over that. I loved Mad Magazine as a kid, but it never influenced my product choices.
I agree I thought It was a well drafted letter. Humble, apologetic, and a sense of humor. If only companies could always be so “real” as the youths of today say.
He won me over.
4. Did all three in a self-deprecating way.
Bingo.
That was actually a very well thought out, and amusing response.
Best part?
In addition I have offered to send the MAD Magazine Editor a $20.00 Circuit City Gift Card, toward the purchase of a Nintendo Wii….if he can find one!
@TakingItSeriously: doesn’t get much better than that. It goes to show, if you can’t make fun of yourself, you have no sense of humor.
@CountryJustice:
That was perfect, really. I’m surprised it came from Circuit City, but maybe they are changing – that’s a good thing. It would have only been better had he mentioned that parodies and things like that, which tend to reflect public opinion, are actually good tools from improving service, marketing techniques, etc., thereby gaining more business for themselves in the long run.
That might be the best letter ever written by a company exec. Not only does he apologize and set things straight, he poked fun at his company in a way that actually amde me grin! I’m flabbergasted!!
Now… why can’t they staff their stores with people this cool?
At least they aren’t “taking this very seriously”.
This is why I shop at Circuit City over Best Buy (that, and the Circuit City is located on MY side of the street, while I’d have to cross the street to get to Best Buy).
What really sad is this letter is funnier than the sucker city parody.
I really don’t think they would have apologized if it didn’t become such a huge deal. Obviously Consumerist helped spread the word, along with Gizmodo.
I haven’t shopped at Circuit City since they publicly stated they were laying off a whole bunch of employees merely to hire new ones at lower wages.
And I hope more people realize that much of the letter was, in fact, a self parody. Task force, indeed…
“Made a material gesture of apology”
A material and quite hilarious gesture of apology! The cross-departmental task force joke was hilarious.
As a gesture of our apology and deep respect for the folks at MAD Magazine, we are creating a cross-departmental task force to study the importance of humor in the corporate workplace and expect the resulting Powerpoint presentation to top out at least 300 pages, chock full of charts, graphs and company action plans.
That’s funny. Kudos to this guy for having a sense of humor.
Response was actually kinda funny. $20 toward a Wii? Comedy Gold.
Yup, great response.
Heh, I knew there was a reason I kept shopping at Circuit City rather than Best Barf. They’re just better.
Go CC!
300 slide PPT? I think I just clenched up a bit.
As someone who studies workplace issues, I am all for administrators trying to find ways to add humor to the workplace (appropriate humor). A great place to start are management members with a sense of humor.
I loved this letter and think I might be making my next computer purchase at Circuit City. (Of course, we have a great Circuit City and I need a new computer anyway.)
Never in a million years would you get this kind of response from Best Buy. Thats why my two go-to’s for brick-and-mortar electronics are Staples then Circuit City.
Did anyone else think of Arlo Guthrie when reading this?
OK, if he ever comes into want of work, I can safely say that he will be safely employed. That kind of humor does not go unrewarded without a job as intern at MAD Magazine.
Self-depreciating humor in a corporate apology? +5 points.
A class act, indeed.
@Trai_Dep: Self-depreciation sucks at tax time.
Well done circuit city. You deserve a store visit from me.
Fire the sissy though… he’s not helping you do anything…
A PR man with a decent sense of humor? What’s next, cats and dogs living together?
The original instigator has already issued a retraction of this apology for all stores that carry apologies.
Ps, Personally I’ve had a couple good shopping experiences at CC and do support them, at the times when I can find an employee on the floor to help me.
Wow one funny letter and people are already planning to get scammed.
“I know the place is horrible, but the pr guy does have a sense of humor so screw it. Sign me up for firedog/geeksquad while I’m at it.
It would have been funnier if he wrote that he was “taking the issue seriously”, but bully for him for doing the right thing in a timely manner and doing it with humor.
I’ve always had pretty good service at CC, so glad to see this.
Now MAD needs to apologize to me for all the money and time I’ve wasted reading their trite, uninspired, and formulaic parodies (especially of movies) and shamelessly recycled jokes. It was cute for a time, but having had a friend with the collection on CD, I don’t like much of anything past the 80s, if that.
But from a bitter ex-MAD subscriber, I agree, they should keep the issues. The two deserve each other
This isn’t PR Genius. Its Marketing Genius. Viral from the start.
Well maybe not , but If it were I wish I could have been behind it!
@homerjay: That’s because Best Buy isn’t going out of business. It’s easy to be frank when you know full well that you may not have a job tomorrow. (Yes, yes, I exaggerate. But CC is on the ropes.)
Okay, so this guy deserves his salary. Saved it.
I laughed more at the apology than I did at the parody. Once Circuit City goes out of business, this guy should get a job at Mad.
@Norcross: a “humor” task force? I can only imagine what that would be like.
It’s a joke! Get it?
Oy…
That was perfect. Well done corporate PR hack guy!
@Michael Belisle: OMG, I’m going to become the majority shareholder of the company at that price, fire Schoonover, and make Corporate PR Hack Guy CEO! He’d save CC…or go down with a fighting chance, damn it!
DYK: Phil Schoonever once sent out copies of 300 to every store manager for “inspiration”. Seriously. And he wonders why, like Leonides’ 300, the company is dying.
We apologize for the knee-jerk reaction, and have issued a retraction order; the affected stores are being directed to put the magazines back on sale.
Umm, after they’ve all been destroyed? Can I get a discount or sumpin?
@allstarecho: Dude, it’s CC! They probably haven’t even read their corporate email yet, let alone pulled and destroyed the mags, as they are much too busy trying to sell City Advantage plans when they’re not standing around doing nothing!
I echo all the kudos to the PR guy who responded. Points for actually responding personally, publicly and thoughtfully. We need more flaks like that.
Now back to the skepticism.
All this is only as good as his suggestion that they’ll learn from their mistakes. Have we seen that regularly from CC recently? Corporate PR guy bothering to pay attention to the kids on the intarwebs is a good sign. But it’s just a start.
I reserve judgment until the next example of unbridled stupidity. They have a lot of reforming to do, IMO. A good response to a dumb mistake is still just that: admission a dumb mistake occurred. Educate the humorless flake who released the original document in better PR before he makes the mistake.
Secretly, I hope CC reforms. I just hate BB that much.
@clevershark: Mass Hysteria!
Nice job to Circuit City. Funny response. The PR guy does his job well and the company comes off looking good. Love to see the Powerpoint presentation!
the humor in the response is rather self depricating. Not truly hilarious, but enough to warrant a smile. I think that’s actually the only possible thing they could have said that wouldn’t have me rolling my eyes.
Oh sure, Mr. Circuit City PR guy… go ahead and write a fantastic apology letter! Now the entirety of the Internet will have to go back to looking at LOLcats, forwarding e-mail chain letters, pondering the grocery shrink ray and complaining about Comcast. *Sigh*
Oh well, “Sucker City” was fun while it lasted.
.
He had me at . . . . “cross-departmental task force.”
PR job well done
How about you pay the distributor for the copies you destroyed.