Best Buy apologizes after insensitive Serial tweet
That's cold.
Best Buy apologized for tweeting out an insensitive joke that makes reference to a payphone that could have played a key role in the cold-case murder featured in ' Serial.'
'We have everything you need. Unless you need a payphone,' the electronics chain tweeted Thursday afternoon, followed by the hashtag, '#Serial.'
After a few hours of the tweet being up and receiving a lot of negative feedback, Best Buy deleted 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
The payphone serves as the linchpin mentioned in the cult podcast Serial, an ongoing investigation by Sarah Koenig into the case of Adnan Syed, a Maryland man who was convicted for the murder of his ex-girlfriend, Hae-Min Lee 15 years ago.
Koenig mentioned in one of the podcast episodes that Syed had used a payphone at a Best Buy in Baltimore to call his friend Jay for a ride, allegedly a few minutes after he had strangled his ex-girlfriend to death.
Syed is currently serving out a life sentence after he was convicted of Lee's murder.
After the Best Buy in Maryland was identified in the podcast, many fans of the show flocked to the retail store to conduct their own detective work. Everyone is trying to figure out if the payphone actually existed.
Twitter users weren't amused by the chain store's tone-deaf tweet. 'Hey guys, you know someone actually was murdered right?' one irate user said of Best Buy's tweet.
From murder case to branding opportunity. Very sensitive, guys RT @BestBuy We have everything you need. Unless you need a payphone. #Serial
- Dan Stewart (@thatdanstewart) December 11, 2014
Corporate jokes about murder! LOLZ RT @BestBuy: We have everything you need. Unless you need a payphone. #Serial
- Anthony L. Fisher (@anthonyLfisher) December 11, 2014
Because of Koening's close re-examination of Syed's case, many podcast listeners have their doubts whether Syed actually killed Lee.
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