Jim Babb should be made CEO. NOW!

Hmm. The original memo from CC higher-up Elizabeth Barron (featured in the previous article) says:

"Destroy all copies and throw them away. They are not inventoried, and your store will not incur shrink."

So... nobody keeps track of how well magazines sell at Circuit City? No wonder Mad's editor was confused, jokingly or not; there's no sales data to indicate that CC sells magazines at all! Are they giving them out for free? If someone walked off with a stack of them, would they be missed?

@mavrick67: um how about

Mad Magazine parody - A+
Circuit City apology - F

Circuit City brought un-necessary attention to themselves. Mad Magazine is a parody mag, if you can't handle it don't read it!

Mad Magazine parody - C-
Circuit City apology - A+

CC just shot a ray of sunshine up my arse and made purple flowers shoot out my eyes and leprechauns come dancing out of my mouth. I hope they have not started to higher people to troll forums and write niceties back. BB take note.

I know I'm not the first to say this letter was funnier than the actual parody, but it's still the best comment here.

But there's an interesting aside in the AP article: "[Babb] defended Circuit City's sense of humor, pointing to a link of a commercial on YouTube produced by the company." Which is funny, since the Youtube description says "here's a circuit city commercial we'll never see!"

Except, you know, right now. When I'm watching it.

But the quote from MAD is pretty good: "We at MAD were shocked and confused by this entire incident - mainly because we had no idea that Circuit City even sells magazines."

PR job well done ;)

Oh well, "Sucker City" was fun while it lasted.

@clevershark: Mass Hysteria!

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.

Umm, after they've all been destroyed? Can I get a discount or sumpin?

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.

It's a joke! Get it?

Oy...

Well maybe not , but If it were I wish I could have been behind it!

But from a bitter ex-MAD subscriber, I agree, they should keep the issues. The two deserve each other

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.

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.

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.

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.

Fire the sissy though... he's not helping you do anything...

@Trai_Dep: Self-depreciation sucks at tax time.

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.

Did anyone else think of Arlo Guthrie when reading this?

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.)

300 slide PPT? I think I just clenched up a bit.

Heh, I knew there was a reason I kept shopping at Circuit City rather than Best Barf. They're just better.

Go CC!

That's funny. Kudos to this guy for having a sense of humor.

A material and quite hilarious gesture of apology! The cross-departmental task force joke was hilarious.

And I hope more people realize that much of the letter was, in fact, a self parody. Task force, indeed...

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.

What really sad is this letter is funnier than the sucker city parody.

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).

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?

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.

@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.

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!

4. Did all three in a self-deprecating way.

Bingo.

He won me over.

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.