Best Buy forced to apologise for 'insensitive' Serial tweet

A Best Buy store in Arlington, Virginia. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

The true-crime thriller podcast Serial has an entire nation obsessed with the question of whether or not Adnan Syed – who was convicted of murder in 1999 – was, as the prosecution in his case contended in his trial, able to make a call from a payphone in the parking lot of the Woodlawn, Maryland, branch of Best Buy.

So when the store tweeted this joke from its corporate account – on a Thursday, the day the podcast comes out, no less – many Twitter users leapt to express their outrage.

Best Buy’s now-deleted tweet. Photograph: Twitter

Many were offended that the store would use its corporate Twitter account to joke about what is, at its heart, a murder case, with a real victim.

And your insensitive branded tweet of the day come from @BestBuy: https://t.co/chEzVW1IV9

— Will McAvoy (@WillMcAvoyACN) December 11, 2014

IS IT REALLY THAT HARD NOT TO MAKE MURDER JOKES @BESTBUY

— maya inamura (@mayainamura) December 11, 2014

@BestBuy you know Serial isn't fictional, right? Someone is actually in jail and someone actually died.

— Randy Z. Ochoa (@rzochoa) December 11, 2014

Can’t believe this tweet. A girl was murdered. RT @BestBuy: We have everything you need. Unless you need a payphone. #Serial

— Ian Fenn (@ifenn) December 11, 2014

Others were more forgiving.

Before we all pile on @BestBuy, let's remember that they are basically just a big Radio Shack

— incremus (@incremus) December 11, 2014

This dude gets a raise, Best Buy. RT @BestBuy: We have everything you need. Unless you need a payphone. #Serial

— Will Federman (@wfederman) December 11, 2014

And a few made the point that it was the podcast itself, not the store, that turned a real-life murder into entertainment.

LRT: if you're somehow offended by @BestBuy's @serial tweet, be offended by Serial's story being used for entertainment in the 1st place.

— Garrett Berberich (@gberberich) December 11, 2014

.@BestBuy isn't the one that turned a real life murder into weekly entertainment, and acknowledging their part in a popular podcast is smart

— S. Alexander Smith (@SAlexanderPhD) December 11, 2014

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

In a statement, Jeff Shelman, a spokesman for Best Buy, echoed that post.

“We posted a tweet earlier that was clearly in poor taste. We deeply apologize for the tweet about Serial,” Shelman said. “It lacked good judgment and doesn’t reflect the values of our company. We have tweeted an apology and have taken down the offensive tweet.”

The tweet the corporation’s social media account sent out before the one about Serial might have some insight into the thinking behind it:

Gotta get those Likes. #TechnicalDifficulties pic.twitter.com/NxP8Lp2270

— Best Buy (@BestBuy) December 11, 2014

Before the apology, the tweet referencing Serial appeared to have worked as a marketing tool; Best Buy was, as of Thursday afternoon, trending in Chicago.