This wording of the sign was poor, and done without effort, but I have a few points to make.

1. It looks like it was done in one store, and not as a directive from corporate, so I won't hold BB accountable for one store level decision that was in bad taste.

2. I remember when Douglas Adams died, he was my favorite author for most of my life. After I heard the news, I went to my bookshelf and reread many of his books. Its like going to any funeral, people will tell stories about the deceaced in rememberance, and people wanting to buy an artists works after they died is very similar in my mind.

3. How many Heath Ledger movies can you name? IMDB lists 21 released that he is in. So while I might go to BB and find "A knights Tale", I may have forgotten his role in "The Patriot" So it is a service many costomers would look for, since not many BB employees will know every title the actor was in.

4. I'm not going to feel any guilt when I put my money down to see him "The Dark Knight" (was already planning on seeing it), and the theater chains are not going to feel guilty that some people are going to buy tickets to see his last film that might not otherwise see the movie in theaters.

@ninjatales: Yes, because none of us has ever experienced the deaths of several family members, and therefore our ethics are deplorable.

This thread needs less O'Reilly BS.

However, what disgusts me even more than the weirdos interested in purchasing dvds of someone who recently died instead of while they were alive is ... people who can't seem to find the initial action of that BBuy store as unethical.

The lack of morals shown by these commentators shows a disturbing shift in ethics in our nation. The only time some people understand social respect is when tragedy strikes their own families.

That's always a difficulty in news media. It's just a really fine line to walk between legitimately covering tragedies and sensationalizing them. I wrote the obituary beat for a college paper and the entire experience was horrific, trying to walk that line between legit coverage and sensationalism, and coverage and intrusion (with the family/friends of people who'd died too young).

Maybe if they cleaned up the sign a bit it wouldn't be so offensive but they typed that up in 5 minutes in a word document and stuck in on a table. This tells me that they were trying to capitalize on Heath Ledgers death as soon as possible.

@snoop-blog: I don't agree. Dead is dead - why does it matter how he died? We now have to be more respectful of people that overdose on drugs than of people that died of old age? And Best Buy isn't going to hire people to do nothing but follow death news and figure out when is the best time to display movies.

@Balisong: i think it would be different if he had died at old age from natural causes, but that is just it, we don't know yet. i'm just sayin, at least wait for the stinkin autopsy.

if the same display was done for Rodney Dangerfield, after his death, i would surely think of it differently than an un-timely death of a young actor. but personally i wouldn't give enough care to complain about it.

Come to think of it, what is wrong with this? This guy was an actor, so in his death his movies are put on display. It shows how talented he was that people are recognizing his death and celebrating what he did in life.

"Oh but they're making money off of his death!"

It's a store, that's what they do: make money. Did you expect them to take all his movies off the shelves and store them in a back room until the news blew over?

We now have such a prejudice against retail that instead of seeing a display like this in Best Buy and going "Oh yeah, he was a great actor, it's good to be able to see what he was in," we go "What a disgrace to see his movies put out for sale when he just died! And what a tasteless sign to say...that he had great performances!"

You see evil where you want to see it. Wake up.

@swalve: duh! so they agreed that it was "causing damage" by your statement. same thing i just said just worded differently.

Some of you haven't worked in retail I see. This is more-than-very common - it's just plain what retailers do when there's a death, and they do it immediately. Take the movies/books/etc they were in/wrote and make a display. The death is in the news and people will want the products. I didn't hear anyone ranting about how "tasteless" my store's Richard Pryor display was when he died. Some people just happened to b**** about it this time beause people in the US have become overly sensitive about death and Best Buy had to kiss and make up for what is typical in the industry.

This is stupid stupid stupid and I see nothing wrong with the sign.

@vliam:

You're right, I am no fan of Kaput's...sorry, Tupac's careening...uh, "career".

If the album by Kap...Tupac you mentioned was a planned album release, like the new Batman movie with Heath Ledger, then it's a different matter and could not be considered profiteering any more than any other album. "Batman" will likely come out on the same time schedule before and after word of Ledger's death. I'm just glad nobody pulled something this disgusting when Spalding Gray committed suicide.

Conversely, when writers die, there is a run on books by the authors. Maybe they should be held to a different standard since writers intend for their work to outlive them. Some people aren't aware of certain writers until they die since the writer wasn't as prominent at the time, but it's also a good guage of how influential and important a writer is. When Kurt Vonnegut Jr. died, his books sold more within a month of his death than they had in years and outsold other prominent authors by 10:1 after their demises in the past few years.

@shan6: Actually, Amazon did create a special section.

I don't understand why it's sick and twisted for people to want to buy his movies now. Numerous people have said it is but no one has explained why.

It was also a very popular section.

Did you know Heath Ledger personally? Do you have any personal interest in this? If you went to a garage sale and someone had the same display up, would you still be offended, or is it because it is Best Buy? I hate, despise, loathe BB by the way, but this incident does not contain any of the following:

1) deceiving customers or misrepresenting their products
2) ripping them off, gouging, etc (they aren't suddenly trying to charge double for the movies now)
3) giving bad customer service
4) selling a dangerous, faulty, or useless product
5) colluding with other businesses or government to artificially inflate prices or fail to provide service

So what's your problem? Oh, you're such a close friend to the Ledger family that you can't bear to know that some Best Buy manager 2,000 miles away made a mildly insensitive-to-the-memory-of sign because people kept asking for Heath Ledger's movies?

Your indignation has received the following grade: FAIL. Please apply for retraining.

I think that you are greatly overestimating consumer reaction.
Next year will mark the twentieth anniversary of the Exxon Valdez spill and the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Bhopal disaster.

Both Exxon and Dow, the parent company of Union Carbide, seem to be doing quite well despite the fact that neither of them have ever really fixed the damage that they created.

I'm no fan of Best Buy at all, and I'd gladly be the first to condemn them. But what I'm learning is that there are quite a range of opinions on whether their display was tasteful or not. Personally, I don't see a problem with it. Some of the profit from any DVD sales will go to his daughter.

It is not like they raised their prices on Heath Ledge products. That would surely be profiteering on his death. No doubt, if you go on eBay today, you will see his autographs fetching much higher prices than prior to his death. Is that ok?

It's sold 4.2 million copies since release.

The pop culture disadvantaged have to say: Heath who?

BEST BUY INSTITUTES "SHRINE POLICY" FOR ANY DEAD ACTOR/MUSICIAN

From now on, when a notable person dies, and their likeness is contained on media that Best Buy sells, Best Buy will immediately set up a shrine to that person, so that all of their media is available in a small area.

Actually, myself, I think it'd be cool. But it would also be bad corporate ethics. Seriously, do any of you people have any involvement in corporate ethics? At least any training?

So, they've managed to give themselves a temporary bump in the sales of whoever died that day or week. Great.

But now, they've got a new problem. They've alienated more customers, and tarnished their reputation and the goodwill of their brand. They're seen, by some, as a company waiting for the next person to die so that they can turn a quick buck.

Hey, nothing in capitalism says you can't do that. But Best Buy's problem would be that, in terms of raw capitalism, it is self defeating. Unless they manage to change US culture, they're going to have a backlash. And Best Buy would rightly make the calculation that the cost of a backlash would exceed the excess profits that they would make through their temporary death promotions.

Because Best Buy has an obligation to give a good return to the shareholders (aside from any corporate ethics obligation), they're going to stop such a behavior. Again, capitalism.

Doing dead artists promotions is not a positive experience in capitalism for large companies. Joe at the flea market? Sure.

Regardless of if you think it is silly or not, the backlash that is out there makes such a decision unprofitable and unethical for a large company.

And, besides, we all know that the whole idea likely came some junior assistant Best Buy store manager who's looking to impress his boss.

FAIL. That's why he's a junior assistant store manager.

apparently even best buy's higher up's felt it was a tasteless display, and removed it. i don't think they felt they would lose any money by placing them in their proper space. if they were really profiting off of that kind of method, they would have told the complainers to get bent. the idea that a movie would sell more, be worth more, or become more rare simply because a main actor in the movie dies just does not make any since to me.

@ClayS: It's not terrible if people have a sudden increased interest in his life's work. It IS terrible that rather than having some respect for the recently deceased and his family, they're broadcasting his death for profitibility in a way that questions the ethics of an already piss-poor company.

It's one thing to put up a sign or message that says, "Our condolences to Heath Ledger's family", and quite another that says, "HUZZAH! HEATH IS DEAD! BUYZ OUR MOVIEZZZZ!!"

u.u

Bringing them all together in one display simplifies the shopping experience for both the customer and the employees. From a marketing standpoint, it's no different that featuring cranberry sauce, yams, and stuffing on an supermarket end-cap for Thanksgiving.
Best Buy's job isn't to honor a person's memory; It's to sell crap.

this arguement reminds me of those 'support our troops' magnets.

@vladthepaler:

Oh yes. That's why stores should pull his DVD's from the shelves for the usual waiting period. TV stations should not broadcast his movies either; to do so would be a grave insult.

I don't understand all this. The actor was probably very proud of his life's work. If the fact that his death is in the news and as a result people have increased interest in seeing some of his films they haven't seen before, why is that so terrible?

"Best Buy has all the right in the world to respond to customer demand..." No argument there.

"...and there always will be instantaneous demand whenever an artist dies..." No argument there.

"...and gather them for easier purchase... There is no problem whatsoever with what they are doing here." Apparently, the market disagreed with you. Buyers complained, and the seller stopped the behavior.

The market has made its decision. You're going against the market. You're not arguing AGAINST capitalism, are you?

Again, it goes back to corporate ethics. Read my previous two questions. "Is this something we want to regularly do?" "Is this something that would shed bad light on the company if publicized?"

Even if you don't believe in corporate ethics, while it is purely capitalistic behavior you're talking about, such behavior also has a negative financial impact on the company that engages in such behavior.

By chasing dollars and engaging in behaviors to bring in more money, you're actually LOSING money in the process. Amazing how ethics works in the big picture.

I guess none of the complainers have investments. This kind of quick thinking is how fortunes are made-- it's the American way!

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.

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.

@swalve: @stanfrombrooklyn:
You both just had me CRACKING UP.

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.

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'll tell you who's made a lot of money off someone's death. Tupac's mother. That's who.

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.

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.

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.

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.

.

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?

Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public, though they are still ambulance chasers.

@snoop-blog: Saw your show the other day. Not bad.

@public enemy #1: yeah i was. but i am taking your comment "very seriously." lol

@snoop-blog: PITA = pain in the ass (not sure if you were joking) If so, please ignore.

@public enemy #1: i don't think the bread people would complain

@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.

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.

@homerjay: seriously.

@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.

i want to have the first company to take something "semi-seriously" ...........

snoop-blog incorporated takes your concern,...with a grain of salt.

@rustyni: i want to know who at best buy thought this would be a good idea?

@public enemy #1:

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.

@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

on a serious note, i'd probably o.d. intentionally if ia had to hang out with either of the olsen twins.

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...

@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.

@rustyni: ever heard of celebrity death pools? i wonder who cashed in literally?

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.

@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.

Sick. Cashing in on someone's untimely death. Just sick.

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.

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?

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.

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.