It looks like the corporate goon who ordered all copies of Mad Magazine with a Circuit City parody inside destroyed was acting on her own. An “embarrassed corporate PR guy” has apologised to Mad Magazine and tried to make things right. Nice work, Circuit City. The letter of explination/apology in full, after the jump.
Hi, Ben,
I spotted the article about Circuit City and MAD Magazine on your site.
fyi, I became aware of this “situation” only this morning, and I have sent a note today to the Editors of MAD Magazine.
Speaking as “an embarrassed corporate PR Guy,” I apologized for the fact that some overly-sensitive souls at our corporate headquarters ordered the removal of the August issue of MAD Magazine from our stores. Please keep in mind that only 40 of our 700 stores sell magazines at all.
The parody of our newspaper ad in the August MAD was very clever. Most of us at Circuit City share a rich sense of humor and irony…but there are occasional temporary lapses.
We apologise for the knee-jerk reaction, and have issued a retraction order; the affected stores are being directed to put the magazines back on sale.
As a gesture of our apology and deep respect for the folks at MAD Magazine, 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.
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!
All the best,
Jim Babb
Corporate Communications
Circuit City Stores, Inc.
Richmond, VA
Bernard
Wednesday, September 24, 2008 at 2:36 AMMeh. Just as I thought. The gross portrayal of epilepsy and perpetuation of the dangerous myth that one should stick anything in the mouth of someone having a seizure (see the full add here: http://www.coping-with-epilepsy.com/forums/f27/media-coverage-reflecting-epilepsy-3933/#post36380 ) had nothing to do with Circuit City’s move to block that issue.
The Epilepsy Foundation sent the following letter to MAD Magazine:
Jonathan Bresman
MAD Magazine
1700 Broadway, Suite 463
New York, NY 10019-5905
Dear Mr. Bresman:
The cartoon advertisement, Epilepsy Victim Bundle for Wii, is tasteless and disturbing to the more than 3 million Americans living with epilepsy. Epilepsy affects anyone, at any age – more than 300,000 children under the age of 15 have epilepsy; some possibly read your magazine.
In the ad, you depict seizures as funny and/or the punch line of the joke, which further escalates the misconceptions, ignorance and fear that is *****ociated with epilepsy. Ultimately, the depiction affects how people with epilepsy are perceived, valued and accepted by society. Besides, I’m sure your creative staff can design funny ads without making light of seizures.
Although it is too late to do anything about the advertisement, I suggest you share accurate information about epilepsy. Perhaps in the next edition of MAD or on your website, you can include the enclosed fact sheet, which is full of valuable information about epilepsy.
For more information, visit http://www.epilepsyfoundation.org or call me directly at XXX-XXX-XXXX. I look forward to helping to educate your audience about epilepsy and seizures.
Sincerely,
[signature]
Eric R. Hargis
President & CEO
and MAD Magazine issued a short apology:
Dear Mr. Hargis, Thank you for your letter regarding our recent “Sucker City” parody with the “Epilepsy Victim Bundle for Wii.” MAD is usually careful to avoid doing any sort of “victim humor,” and we are sorry to say that this one got past the editorial staff and fell through the cracks. Please accept our apologies. Our intent was to spoof Circuit City and the products it sells – we were not targeting people living with epilepsy. We should have been more careful. We appreciate your co.ntacting us and bringing this error to our attention. We will be more vigilant in the future. (signed by the editor-in-chief)
Both letters posted here:
http://www.epilepsyfoundation.org/efforums/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=40&threadid=80965&enterthread=y