Twitter’s fake BP spokesman too slick for the oil company | Technology | Los Angeles Times
As if the all-too-real BP oil spill weren’t enough of a circus, a satirical Twitter account called @BPGlobalPR adds some dark humor to a sludgy situation.
The fake BP Twitter page was created a week ago and already has 42,000 followers — dwarfing BP’s real account, @BP_America, which has 5,700. The person pulling the strings of @BPGlobalPR, who refused to reveal himself or even break character in an interview with The Times, spills barrels of dark humor onto the international calamity.
@BPGlobalPR’s fictional character, Terry, moves to stir up further controversy beyond the real-life disaster and so-far disastrous cleanup attempts that have sent BP’s stock sliding 17.5 points since the April 20 Deepwater Horizon spill.
Since then, we’ve seen a ludicrous parade of headlines, toxic name-calling, contributions from Kevin Costner and numerous TV appearances by Bill Nye the Science Guy, the children’s show host who is apparently now an authority on the issue.
The @BPGlobalPR Twitter profile vilifies the company further. Some fan favorites from the Twitter page include:Catastrophe is a strong word, let’s all agree to call it a whoopsie daisy.
The good news: Mermaids are real. The bad news: They are now extinct. #bpcares
We just saw a shark fight an octopus inside the geyser. Almost made this whole thing worth it.
We tracked down the fictional Terry and had a chat via e-mail. Throughout the exchange, he refused to break character (or talk on the phone). He did, however, note that the project has netted more than $3,000 for the nonprofit Gulf Restoration Network through the sale of $25 “BP cares” T-shirts (in green and black, a nice mesh of the colors of money and oil).
Interview at link.