Update (2:15 p.m. July 8): Best Buy says the creator of the awesome not-safe-for-work iPhone 4 vs. HTC EVO YouTube videos can keep his job. Just one problem. Doesn't sound like Brian Maupin is enamored with hawking phones with the blue shirts anymore. The Star reported that Best Buy had finished its "investigation into the videos."
How does Best Buy investigate? Did they unleash the Geek Squad interrogate Maupin?
Last night, Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn weighed in on his blog, saying Maupin could keep his job but he wasn't happy with videos that "portrayed Best Buy, our customers and our vendors in a negative light" and were taken down:
The videos in question did not illustrate "humility, respect and integrity" and that's unacceptable to me, our customers and our employees. We are a values-based organization and I'm relentless on issues or situations that contradict our values.
If you know where to see these videos, let me know.
foul-mouthed Phone Mart employee is probably going to be looking for work soon.
Dunn wrote that Maupin could keep his job. But Maupin isn't likely to clock in. He's "taking a leave of absence" to "survey my current career plans and future." And going back to work for the store wasn't giving him a warm and fuzzy feeling.
The guy who created this
Original Story (9:45 a.m. July 2): Please tell me you've seen the hilarious, not-safe-for-work iPhone 4 vs. HTC EVO videos. (C'mon, more than a million people watched the first one on YouTube.)
Pay close attention if you own a graphic design-animation studio. We know a guy who's probably going to be looking for a new job because of these videos.
The guy who made them is from
Independence. And his name is Brian Maupin, and he says he's about
to lose his job at Best Buy over the videos.
Maupin tells TechCruch:
He's expecting a pink slip on Monday, according to KMBC Channel 9. It's total bullshit given Best Buy isn't mentioned in either of the videos. Yeah, he mentions Phone Mart (not Best Buy) and the Apple Store (a competitor) but never his employer. Smart move. Too bad the blue-shirt-wearing dicks want to fire an obviously talented guy because they don't want to piss off Apple (or Sprint)."They felt it disparaged a brand they carried
(iPhone/Apple) as well as the store itself and were fearful of
stockholders & customers being turned off to Best Buy Mobile."
Showing 1-6 of 6
We are a values-based organization
True, if the values you're talking about belong to P.T. Barnum.
About six or eight years ago, I bought a flat-bed scanner from the "values-based" Best Buy at 95th and Quivira. When I got it home and went to set it up, I found a magazine addressed to a lawyer in Overland Park sitting on the bed. Of course, the "values-based" store manager swore up and down that they would never put a returned item back on the shelves and sell it as new, although he had no explanation for how his "values-based" employees had apparently done just that.
"Values-based organization" my ass. BestBuy is a pack of lying, cheating, crooked scumbags. Deal with them at your own risk.
I was going to say...animation studios don't need to be looking this guy up. It's just a website that you plug dialogue into and it animates it for you. No brilliance on that end, but the dialogue is pretty priceless.
That said, it shouldn't be too hard to find a better job than one at Best Buy in Independence.
He didn't actually make the videos per se. They are a product of xtranormal.com, a website where you can choose from several animated actors and then create your own dialogue between them. The dialogue is hilarious though!
This guy should be commemorated! It was hilarious and right to the point. He is smarter then 99% of people out there. I think I may hirer this guy to my company absolutely brilliant.
These videos tell me he probably has dealt with one too many iPhone fanboys. I own an iPhone and think these videos are just hilarious. Both phones have their pros & cons and both will be outdated within a few months. It's wrong for Best Buy to fire this guy simply because he made the video. He did everything right when creating and promoting it in regards to not giving any note that he works for Best Buy. As a last note, I'd really like to know if he created these or just used all of the functions available at xtranormal.com. It's pretty easy to make these, but it takes real talent to create the dialogue. Kudos to Brian for the great video.
like
dislike
