CORPORATE STUPIDITY

Best Buy's Bad Move Over Virtual iPhone Spoof

By Elizabeth C.

A BEST BUY EMPLOYEE IS LEARNING THAT IT'S DANGEROUS TO TICK OFF YOUR CORPORATE DADDY.

Have you seen the hilarious video above? It depicts a cartoon bear phone salesman becoming increasingly frustrated by a customer who won't even consider an EVO 4G over the iPhone 4.

"The monthly bill is cheaper,'' the sales bear tells the customer. "I don't care," she responds. "It fucking prints money,'' the salesman tries again. "I don't care." "It can grant up to three wishes even if one of those wishes is for an iPhone."

"I don't care."

And so it goes until the sales bear is ready to chop of his most precious body part. (Warning: the video is being called NSFW.)

The animation was made Brian Maupin, a 25-year-old Best Buy employee from Kansas City, Missouri who intended it as a joke and makes no mention of his employer anywhere in the video.

Yet according to TechCrunch, someone on high at Best Buy saw the now-viral video, "put two and two together," figured out that Maupin was its creator and asked for his resignation.

"They felt it disparaged a brand they carried as well as the store itself and were fearful of stockholders & customers being turned off to Best Buy Mobile,” Maupin told TechCrunch.

And get this: Maupin's tinywatchproductions even produced a "rebuttal video" in defense of the iPhone but that was for naught.

After refusing to quit, Maupin was suspended last week and now expects to be fired. “I see it all as a blessing in disguise. I’ve wanted to start my career in graphic design/animation for so long, I see this as my kick in the pants to go get it.”

But here's the irony: no one had any idea -- nor cared a flying rat's butt -- that this video was made by a Best Buy employee until the company suspended him.

To quote the disbelieving bear salesman: "Your f-----g stupidity has killed me."