Best Buy apologises for offensive tweet about Serial podcast murder

WELL this is a new low for misguided corporate tweets. A retail giant in the US has apologised after a grossly tone-deaf tweet about a grisly 1999 murder.

AMERICAN retail giant Best Buy today has issued a hasty apology after online outrage over a lighthearted tweet it made about the murder made famous by the Serial podcast.

The Maryland Best Buy outlet has become a macabre tourist attraction for fans of the podcast, which is re-examining the 1999 murder of Baltimore teenager Hae Min Lee.

Murdered ... Hae Min Lee, a popular US high school senior, was found strangled in a shallow grave.

Jailed ... Adnan Syed called a friend from the payphone outside Best Buy after the murder.

A witness in the case claimed the man convicted of Lee’s murder called him from a payphone at the Best Buy, although as fans of Serial would know, there is no evidence that there was a payphone at Best Buy.

In an apparent attempt to cash in on that attraction, Best Buy issued the now deleted tweet: “We have everything you need. Unless you need a payphone. #Serial”.

Will anyone at @bestbuy ever realize making a social media joke about a young girl's strangulation is bad branding? pic.twitter.com/kVD4eQ43Je

— Devin Faraci (@devincf) December 11, 2014

@snotforprofit #wtf?! I get trying to seem cool for listening to a hip podcast but seriously @bestbuy that’s just wrong.

— Michael Bellavia (@mrbellavia) December 11, 2014

In a world with endless amounts of Kardashian to riff on, @bestbuy goes with a murder joke pic.twitter.com/sWzdlzpBY6

— Claire Kerr (@snotforprofit) December 11, 2014

The reactions to the tweet, which was retweeted more than 1000 times, ranged from the offended to the unprintable, forcing a retraction a short while later.

Best Buy is not the first company to try to be edgy on social media and then plummet over that edge. But making jokes about a murder takes dumb corporate tweets to a new level.

SERIAL PODCAST: Who really murdered Hae Min Lee?

A DEATHLY TALE: The podcast everyone is talking about

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