ABC gives BP’s Fake Twitterer his 15 minutes–what it means for the next crisis

Well, with interest in the spill winding down and needing a new way to draw attention to himself and his hopeful career in comedy writing, the “mastermind” behind the fake twitter account “BPGlobalPR” has been revealed. Thanks to ABC News.  Josh Simpson, a budding comedian from Los Angeles created the popular Twitter account, supported by a number of other comedy writers.

On a webinar I did last week for PRSA with one of the top BP communication leaders, the question came up about what BP did about this fake account. Nothing was the answer, a completely correct answer. Certainly there were those within the company and no doubt in the legal department who would have loved to do something, but if anyone had seriously advocated taking some action it would have just shown their ignorance of the social media environment. The ABC news reporter seemed a little surprised and confused when Josh said that BP really did nothing to stop him. It’s the right strategy of course. Let them have their fun, and actually, like the YouTube video about BP executives spilling coffee, it was actually quite funny some of the time.

But, there is only one time to be first with something like this. This was not the first fake Twitter account–I blogged about ExxonMobil’s trouble with this a long time ago. And Twitter seems perfectly happy to allow this kind of behavior to go on–why not? Good publicity and all that. The problem is, the next event will have a hundred Josh Simpson wannabes. The competition for fake Twitter accounts will be immense, thanks in large part to ABC News. How many budding comedians, or just angry young video game players, won’t start up a Twitter account the next time something seriously goes wrong? After all, they might get a spot on national news and start a whole new line of work.

So, crisis communicators, beware. We’ve only seen the beginning of fake Twitter accounts to pop up in major events.

I did get a kick out of Josh’s plans for the future. He’s going to start a GlobalPR twitter account that is aimed at corporations who act irresponsibly. I wonder if his definition of irresponsibility might include posing as someone he is not? Oh dear, that is getting too serious for fake Twitter fans. Still, might be interesting to see a twitter account targeting comedians who act irresponsibly. Just a thought.

Here’s why the media’s investigative reports make me angry

Certainly a lot of investigative reports are valuable, perform an important service. But far too often they are far more harmful than helpful. The harmful part is driven by the media’s need to entertain, which they do by creating a white hat/black hat story regardless of the truth.

Like many farms, Randy Adkin’s blueberry farm uses migrant workers which are housed in camps–about 250 of them. Farm labor was plentiful this year and Adkins turned away over 1000 adults looking for work. Normally the children of the migrant families attend a state-supported day care, but Michigan’s economy was in the tank so no day care and no summer school program for the kids. So the migrant families had to supply their own daycare and some brought their kids to the field with them. It is not a practice Adkins supported, but much to his regret, he did not do enough to stop it.

I just want to mention a side note here. I grew up in berry picking area and every summer since I was about five years old I would go and pick berries. First with my mom, then when about nine or ten, on my own with my brothers. We would ride our bikes, pick berries, eat a whole lot and earn a little money for candy, school supplies, etc. It was where most of us around here learned what work was all about. But some enlightened do-gooders decided that child labor was a throw back to bad old days of the industrial revolution and now it is illegal for anyone under 12 to work. Sure, there is some value in that, but my gosh don’t we go overboard.

Back to the Adkin’s farm. Some college kids said they were doing a documentary on how blueberry farms work and shot video of the children in the fields working alongside their parent. They turned it over to authorities and the media. The Department of Labor stepped in and levied fines. ABC News ran a big story with Chrlie Gibson and Brian Ross who were suitably shocked and dismayed at the shameful exploitation of child labor by this berry farmer.

But of course, that is not enough. The big image-conscious companies who marketed the blueberries, Meijer, Kroger and Walmart all suspended business with the farm. As the editor of Food Grower News points out, Walmart’s righteous indignation was especially galling since they have become the behemoth they are largely on child labor in China.

As a result, every farmer in the nation was scurrying to make certain that not a single child any where near age 12 was to be found any where near their fields. Is that a good thing? Certainly not for the strapped migrant families. Beyond that I’ll let you be the judge. The Department of Labor of course looks good because they did their enforcement thing. The big companies protected their image because they told the world they won’t stand for this kind of brutal exploitation of child labor. ABC can feel quite good because it was definitely a white hat black hat story that played well to the credulous masses.

The sad thing is the truth escaped the agendas of all those involved. And that is something that every American ought to care deeply about.