You know someone did a study last year about Black women and electronic gadgets. We purchase an inordinate amount of electronics. you might want to remind Best Buy of that fact now that they have teamed up with Ludacris aka “Mr. Move B*tch” get out the way. Didn’t Pepsi drop him a few years back?
Not only is Best Buy partnering with Ludacris, They are using him to speak directly to teens.
Ludacris recently teamed up with Best Buy to do a new TSA (Teen Service Announcement) for the companies teenage-based social networking site. In the new spot Luda says “We all make mistakes, but you have to learn from your mistakes. Try not to make the same mistakes twice in life. We all have teenage years where we kind of were rebellious and just doing things that we’re finding out about life” Sandra Rose
You mean like producing songs featuring the sound of a woman screaming as you hit her?
What lessons is he going to teach? The proper three point stance while twirling on a pole?
Enjoy this Youtube retrospective of Ludacris’ greatest hits. Then you might consider printing out the lyrics calling up Best Buy’s CEO and asking if this is really the appropriate person to be speaking to children. Was Keke Palmer not available? What about Raven Symone? Mayla Pratt?
Throw a Stone- Pick Up The Phone
Here is the contact info for the CEO of Best Buy according to The Consumerist. Let me know if these don’t work. You need to call and email. Use those anytime minutes please. Here are instructions on how to get through to at least the executive customer service department. They are pretty good and pretty accurate in my opinion.
Bradbury H. Anderson, Vice Chairman & CEO
Best Buy Co., Inc.
7601 Penn Avenue South
Richfield, MN 55423-3645
Phone: 612-292-2453
brad.anderson@bestbuy.comThe phone number goes to a secretary, Debby.
Do let me know what Bradbury has to say. I’ll do the same.
18 comments ↓
Gina, thanks for this post and helping keeping me informed. I swear it’s hard to keep with the nonsense. And I’m sorry to say that crazy Ludacris is from my home town. Ugh ugh ugh.
Done.
(I hope he gets a good laugh. I entitled my email to him as “Ludacris Marketing Technique. )
Man, you are so on point with this.
I called and it went to a voicemail service. Weird. Anyway, I left a message.
I also just emailed and reminded Mr. Anderson that women tend to make most purchasing decisions in a household. We decide which companies the family will support and tend to be more aware of advertising. So for Best Buy to assume that women, especially black women, would be OK with a misogynist speaking to their children is just, well, Ludacris.
I also reminded him that during a down economy a company like Best Buy cannot afford to have negative press and lose customers.
I asked them to re-consider there use of Ludacris for the campaign and offered my services as a “consultant” to help them find a more suitable spokesperson. I said that if no one at Best Buy had an ear to the ground of what is going on in black culture then they needed to hire someone who did.
I caled and spoke to MARYLYNN who answered in the CEO’S office. She thentransferred me to Hedi in PR . I left a message. Will follow up with email let me know if you get an email reply.
I called Mr. Anderson’s office. MaryAnn answered and transferred me to Kelly in PR. I spoke with Kelly and gave her my point of view. She apologized for any offense that using Ludacris in this TSA may have caused. She also acknowledged that she has received other calls and mail concerning this matter, and that Best Buy will be reviewing this matter. Thank you for alerting us to this TSA, Gina, so that we have the chance to make our point-of-view known to Best Buy.
I emailed Brad this morning. I haven’t received a response as of yet. Thanks for the heads up on this Gina.
Hi Gina,
I got a response– here it is:
Dear Ms. Simmons:
Thank you for raising your concerns about our recent @15 Teen Service Announcement (TSA), featuring the artist Christopher Bridges, also known as Ludacris. We appreciate hearing from all voices on issues that matter to those who choose to shop with Best Buy. Please know that we did not intend to offend you while working to build public support for our philanthropic platform.
Our promise with @15 is to help lift the voices of today’s teens, and to empower them to direct our corporate philanthropy in communities across the nation. We believe that a wide range of people sharing their own teenage experiences can help encourage teens to speak up and take action. As a retailer that works with a vast number of artists and entertainers, we ask those partners to voluntarily share their own experiences and perspectives through the @15 TSAs.
Ludacris is an entertainer we work with. He agreed to share his story, and we believe he did so in a respectful manner, consistent with the @15 mission and the stories of other entertainers who have participated in our TSAs (including Magic Johnson, 3 Doors Down, Taylor Swift and Common). We realize that not every customer will support every artist we work with. In the end, we want to inspire today’s teens to seek opportunities in their own lives, and pursue their own dreams.
Again, thank you for your letter.
Sincerely,
Paula Prahl
Senior Vice President, Communications, Public Affairs and Corporate Responsibility Best Buy Co., Inc.
@ Katrina
I got the EXACT same response. LOL
———————————————————–
Dear Ms. Henson:
Thank you for raising your concerns about our recent @15 Teen Service
Announcement (TSA), featuring the artist Christopher Bridges, also known
as Ludacris. We appreciate hearing from all voices on issues that
matter to those who choose to shop with Best Buy. Please know that we
did not intend to offend you while working to build public support for
our philanthropic platform.
Our promise with @15 is to help lift the voices of today’s teens, and to
empower them to direct our corporate philanthropy in communities across
the nation. We believe that a wide range of people sharing their own
teenage experiences can help encourage teens to speak up and take
action. As a retailer that works with a vast number of artists and
entertainers, we ask those partners to voluntarily share their own
experiences and perspectives through the @15 TSAs.
Ludacris is an entertainer we work with. He agreed to share his story,
and we believe he did so in a respectful manner, consistent with the @15
mission and the stories of other entertainers who have participated in
our TSAs (including Magic Johnson, 3 Doors Down, Taylor Swift and
Common). We realize that not every customer will support every artist we
work with. In the end, we want to inspire today’s teens to seek
opportunities in their own lives, and pursue their own dreams.
Again, thank you for your letter.
Sincerely,
Paula Prahl
Senior Vice President, Communications, Public Affairs and Corporate
Responsibility
Best Buy Co., Inc.
Katrina,
I can assume we did not say the same things in our email yet Ms. Prahl thought it was acceptable to send out the same BS response. I am replying via email letting her know that I do not appreciate a form email and nowhere in the email did she respond to anything that I wrote in my initial correspondence.
I sent a letter also and got NO RESPONSE. What an insult! I guess it’s time to ramp up the volume.
@Beverly, don’t be insulted. Be invigorated
@hollywood Don’t get into an argument with this woman. She’s given you her nonsensical response. Take it higher and use her response as additional evidence of how out of touch they are.
How is Ludicris “empowering” to young girls. This isn’t a debate about offensive music. This is about a large corporation targeting children and intentionally seeking to influence their behavior by using someone who has a history of celebrating violence against women and girls in the name of entertainment.
I am insulted that she is comparing Taylor Marsh to Ludacris. That’s the racism of low expectations.
Did any of you look at who Best Buy’s “partners” are with this @15 teen social networking site? http://www.at15.org/about_at_15/Partners
Katrina, Hollywood, I got the exact same reply.
Sigh.
There are any number of songs you can complain about of Ludacris’ but “Move Bitch” ain’t one of them.
The song is a road rage rant. “Bitch” is not directed at a woman, but to anyone who happens to be in his way on the road.
At the very least complain about the right song.
Now if you want to complain about him having “Hos in every Area Code”…feel free.
But are you suggesting that because some (definitely not all) of his music is adult in nature he can’t do a PSA?
So any entertainer who does anything someone considers offensive can’t do a PSA?
Really?
Ludacris is hardly the most offensive rapper in rap land. On the scale of offensive he falls pretty low. He’s more cartoonish than anything. There are more pressing issues. Luda and Best Buy ain’t one of them.
@ JJ sigh, If you weren’t offended by ludacris’ lyrics and I agree he has a number of songs far more offensive and there are a number of artists who have lyrics that offend me. But this post wasn’t about them. Perhaps you haven’t heard the version thatI listened to that has the distinct sound of a woman screaming in the place of “B*tch” on the hook.
This post was about people who are troubled by the association between Best Buy and Ludacris for the purpose of “empowering” teens. It was the easiest one to find on You Tube without a parental notice.
I don’t know why people have no problem with rap artists being able to say whatever they want to and being able to communicate with whomever they want to and then when ordinary people want to communicate with the people they give money to, all of a sudden we have to shut up and do more important things. It didn’t take most people 5 minutes to write an email. If that is how they chose to spend their time today. So be it. Its our time.
Again, people have the right to express distress when their money is going to someone they don’t want their money going to promote. Just as Ludicris has the right to rap about “Ruff sex” and “bursting” women’s bladders and other foolishness.
Nobody’s marching on Washington, they are merely having a dialogue with Best Buy, which is their right.
This blog is the same blog it was two years ago. It hasn’t changed. If people don’t like our delecate sensibilities, then they have to the right to go read every other blog on the internet. All 170 million of them… and counting.
Gina,
Thanks for the heads up. I’m definitely giving the Best Buy the email “One Two” combination.
Why do companies insist on insulting customers like my wife and me who just shopped in Best Buy last Saturday?
Gina,
Speaking of anti-sexism campaigns, one just started regarding lawyer David Ogden, who is could become the No. 2 to the U.S. Attorney General.
Why is Ogden so controversial? Maybe its because of his radical pro-porn (read: anti-woman) views. Check out this excerpt on a profile of Ogden:
It’s that pro-porn stance that concerns Alliance Defense Fund special counsel Pat Trueman. As Trueman notes, criminal prosecutions is one of the areas Ogden would be responsible for.
“The reason David Ogden is going to be trouble is that he is a pornography lawyer [who was] prominently involved in the Playboy cases representing Playboy, Penthouse, other cases,” says Trueman. “[And] he has fought against keeping public libraries free of pornography to protect children.”
In other words, he says, Ogden opposed using Internet filters. The pro-family group Fidelis picks up that argument.
“[Ogden] has opposed filters on library computers protecting children from Internet smut, and successfully defended the right of pornographers to produce material with underage children,” charges Fidelis president Brian Burch.
Read the full story here:
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=408602
Talk about a lawyer who’d make BET founder Bob Johnson proud.
If you think Ludacris is scary, imagine him as one of most powerful judges in the land. A Black rape victim wouldn’t have a prayer standing before an Ogden.
So, using the number below, ask your Senators to vote “No!” on confirming Ogden as No. 2:
202-224-3121
Then, forward this info.
Thank you and keep up the good fight!
@ Fred,
I knew nothing about Ogden until I clicked on your link. According to that, he appears to be against the juvenile death penalty, in favour of abortion rights and LGBT rights, and strongly supportive of civil liberties.
What exactly is the problem with him? I’m not getting it.