Best Buy is NOT on Fort Hood

This is the craziest thing. My sister, Katie, emailed me after seeing this Best Buy commercial--described by one lady in a bulletin board post: "I know this is silly, but I just saw a Best Buy commercial that pulled on the heartstrings. It claimed to be located on a military base. It featured a young man claiming he has seen many people purchase Christmas gifts for people they haven't seen in over a year...It showed a silouette of two military people in the background." Click for her full post. My response to that post: I'm sad that they used proximity to the military installation to increase profit--worse, to capitalize on the current high number of families in the area surviving deployements. If they were on post, they'd not charge sales tax and would probably also offer a discount--things they do not do in their current location. Sounds like a case of false advertising to me. I can't imagine how it was allowed to happen. At a minimum there should be an apology. Here is the reply I sent back to Katie (I also posted at the CMO's blog where you can view the commercial video): Best Buy is in Killeen, which could be referred to as a military town, but is not a military base. Fort Hood is an Army Post (not a base) and you can click here to see where Best Buy is: Diane's Google Map I think this is shameless profiteering. Using the situation of families facing or surviving deployment to boost profits is nasty, but this is worse since it is also false advertising. It makes me a little sick. This is an excerpt from a letter about the issue from Best Buy’s CMO: “Stephen Suttles, the gentleman in the commercial, is an employee in Store #182, not an actor. He was selected to appear in the commercial as part of a new campaign we recently started called “True Stories.” The idea behind the campaign is that our 140,000 employees across the country have great stories about making a difference with our customers every day. So we asked them to share stories of Best Buy at its very best. Stephen submitted this particular story about how he loves feeling like he can help military families make the most of their holidays knowing their time together is so precious and limited. Stephen’s father is a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel, and Stephen describes himself as a true “Army brat” living most of his life on military bases up and down the East Coast. As such we felt that his genuine and heartfelt desire to help families facing a difficult time – even in a small way like helping them select the perfect gifts – would shine through in the commercial. I realize he uses the phrase “on a military base, specifically.” And you are correct that the store is not actually on the base. However, there is no intent to deceive anyone. This is simply Stephen telling the story in his own words; he was not scripted or told to use any specific phrases or language.” So, ostensibly, any employee could have told any lie for their commercials as long as it made the store look good and increased sales. I thought this a good topic for blogging since I don't see much mention of it on the web yet. Visit the blog cited above for more responses.