Circuit City Gets Mad, Then Reverses on Magazine
Circuit City is returning Mad Magazine to its newsstands after a report Sunday disclosed the electronics chain store ordered all copies of this month's issue to be destroyed because it included an unflattering parody.
An official in Circuit City's corporate headquarters in Richmond, Va., was upset that the magazine's August 2008 issue features a four-page advertisement for "Sucker City" that contains a logo similar to that of Circuit City, according to a spokesman for the company. The fake ad pokes fun at high prices, the breaking of promises found in advertisements, and the employees who save sold-out merchandise for friends.
After news of the magazine's removal became public yesterday, Circuit City announced it was reversing course and directed all its stores to put Mad back on newsstands immediately, while offering an apology to the magazine.
"The whole situation was an overreaction by someone who is humor-impaired," a spokesman for Circuit City, James Babb, said, adding that 40 of Circuit City's 700 American stores sell magazines.
In the original message, sent through Circuit City's corporate operations division, a company official wrote that stores should "[i]mmediately remove all issues and copies of 'Mad Magazine' from your sales floor. Destroy all copies and throw them away."
The memo was first obtained by a Web log, the Consumerist.
"We at MAD were shocked and confused by this entire incident — mainly because we had no idea Circuit City even sells magazines," the editor-in-chief of Mad, John Ficarra, said in a statement.
