We find ourselves laughing out loud to @BPGlobalPR on Twitter. All of the team sometimes in tears, sometimes close to weeping:
“Eating at a very expensive restaurant and spilled salad dressing on my pants. Not sure how to tackle this.” 12:55 PM May 25th via web
Ok, destroying the world is not funny. My degree is in Political Science (pre-law) from a leading environmental school with a senior emphasis on water regulation. I should know better, so why am I laughing?!
Like many people, I am laughing because it’s TERRIBLE and horrifying watching what’s going on via the Web. It’s incomprehensible that oil has been spilling into the ocean for thirty-something days!
BP is spending a few million dollars a day trying to ‘solve’ this issue (less than any interest they are earning on their accounts). When I watch the live feed of the communications room, there’s barely any chatter – everyone is set like it were a day job, taking lunch breaks as the heat maps show this gigantic warm blob swirling to the shores of Mississippi. OMG.
As a activist and consumer, I see fake twitter accounts popping up for BP. As hilariously educational while borderline defrauding, BP IS SPILLING OIL INTO THE OCEAN. Companies need to start being more careful with their actions.
From a viral perspective, ‘funny and cute’ travel much faster than ‘heavy and serious’ material. Just look at Twitter followers: in ONE WEEK, @BPGlobalPR (which is not an official BP account and clearly a mockery) has over 63,000 followers and the OFFICIAL BP account of @bp_america has close to 7k.
Whoa. What does this say?
Serious is not sexy, funny is viral. Now go get a puppy.
Part of the larger problem with consumers needing help is that it’s not inherently viral: people who need help usually don’t want to show weakness and those listening don’t want to feel obligated to act.
So I read these (albeit) hilarious Twitter accounts mocking a global disaster and I think it’s a step in the right direction. From an environmentalist perspective, I would rather 50,000 people have an idea of what is going on than only 5,000 people knowing – even if they know precisely what is going on.
Transparency is important for both society and the emerging social web economy. Is it completely right to laugh at a company getting mocked? No. Is it something we would do here at ConsumerBell? No. As a CEO myself, I respect a company’s right to branding protection and reputation, so much so that I work with companies to help brands recover from negative issues daily.
All we can do it sit back and see the next step that need to happen in the gulf, until there is a balance of serious issues becoming viral. If a funny tweet inspires a youth to spend their summer cleaning up oil remnants and becoming active as a consumer, than so be it.
Until then, we promise not to destroy an entire section of the earth.
