Sprint Employee Thinks A Theater Shooting Is GREAT Opportunity To Advertise Sprint

Shep Smith, anchor at Fox News, was not terribly
impressed with Sprint employee who tried to
advertise his business while describing a theater shooting. 

I suppose many of us are guilty for sucking up to our employer.

But maybe the guy I'm about to describe went a teensy bit too far. Tell me what you think after reading the following:

A guy named Vincent David Montano, 29, brought ammunition and explosives to a Nashville Tennesee theater last week. He had a gun battle with police and was killed.

Of course, this was big news, and the media was all over it.

Reporters sought out eyewitness. On Fox News, anchor Shepard Smith spoke with a Sprint phone store employee who works near the theater.

Talking Points Memo said the worker told Smith: "We were trying to promote our 'cut your bill in half' (promotion) when we had a couple police officers come in, tell us to lock all the doors, close everything."

A little later in the interview, Smith asked the Sprint worker to clarify whether he works adjacent to the theater or further away.

The Sprint worker responded: "We work at Sprint, where we cut your bill in half."  

To his great credit, Shepard Smith had enough at this point, and said, "That's nice advertising here in the middle of a shooting at a movie theater."

The Sprint worker, realizing he'd been called out, said, "I'm just so used to saying it so much."

Uh, yeah.

Maybe Sprint could go with this advertising theme. "Our phones are still very useful during movie theater shootings! We cut your bills in half even while an assailant is cutting YOU in half with bullets!"

Somehow, I don't think this is going to become a centerpiece of Sprint's latest advertising campaign.

Anyway, if the Sprint worker thought his impromptu advertising at a crime scene would win him brownie points from his bosses, think again.

Consumerist reports that a rep for Sprint said they are talking to the employee's boss to determine the appropriate course of action because mentioning Sprint's recent sales promotiions "was inappropriate during a tragic situation."

No, really!?!?

Here's Shep Smith's interview with "Tom" the Sprint employee near the theater shooting: