@BPGlobalPR

Posted by Brannon Cullum in Build Awareness , Free, Very Wired, Fundraising, Humor, North America, Social Networking, Twitter

THE PROBLEM

Like many people in the United States and around the world, Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Simpson was frustrated by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and outraged at BP’s response to the public.

One month after the spill first began, Josh was growing tired of statements being released by BP that offered “no solutions, no urgency, no sincerity, no nothing.”  BP’s actions—including the release of inaccurate estimates about the spill’s impact, barring the press from going onto the gulf beaches, and CEO Tony Hayward’s insensitive comments (see video below)— ignited widespread anger.

Not a formal environmental activist by any means, Josh reacted with by doing what he does best—comedy.

THE PLAYERS

Sick of “a system set up where companies make press releases and the media regurgitates them,” Josh began tweeting from @BPGlobalPR on May 19, 2010. He didn’t use his actual name, choosing the pseudonym Leroy Stick (and adding “employee” Terry to the mix). The first tweet:

 He began sending out more tweets, making jokes at BP’s expense with a few friends.




At first, Josh wasn't sure if he could break through the Twitter "noise" to get anyone to pay attention to his tweets. His strategy was to start following popular Twitter users like celebrities, politicians, and journalists to see if anyone would acknowledge the account. It wasn’t until well-known movie critic Roger Ebert retweeted something Josh wrote that it began to spread.  Soon he was gaining thousands of new followers each day.

THE TOOLS AND TACTICS

The timely and humorous tweets coming from @BPGlobalPR quickly caught on and began spreading virally.


By no means did he expect to gain a following of nearly 200,000 followers. People began asking, “Is this real?” thinking that @BPGlobalPR was actually BP’s public relations. Josh was able to tap in to the frustration felt by many and he was was able to capture it in a humorous way that resonated with them.





The effort to put out timely, funny tweets was collaborative. Many ideas for tweets came from Josh himself, but he also received help from comedy writers he knows and works with. He notes, "I started the account and shared it with some friends. I basically said, if anyone has any ideas or tweets, pitch them to me. I edited all of the tweets and probably wrote about half of them myself, but I always kept the door open for good ideas. Since no one was making any money, that seemed to work."


Josh also chose to remain anonymous because he didn't want the account associated with just one person, telling us:

"I wanted to see how big it could get. I felt that if I took credit for it, it would be thought of as my thing rather than a thing. I wanted to create a movement and keep the momentum going. I felt that remaining anonymous kept it interesting. Unfortunately, the sad truth is, people stopped caring. People lost interest in the account and more importantly, they lost interest in the spill before the leak was even fixed. Most people still don't know who I am, and I actually prefer it that way."

Josh didn't reveal his true identity until late September 2010 for an interview with CBS.

Josh also used the Twitter account to raise money by selling tee shirts.

"I decided to sell tee shirts benefiting the gulf the weekend BPGlobalPR started blowing up.  When the feed started, I would respond to angry users by promising them a free "BP cares" tee shirt to make it right. People who got it saw that I was doing this and they started to demand "BP cares" tee shirts. Once I created the demand, I got in touch with my friend who designs shirts and runs streetgiant.com, we came up with the simple idea, and we were taking orders by Sunday, May 23. I decided to donate all of the money to the Gulf Restoration Network because I didn't want to profit from the tragedy and I felt it was a good way to make sure BP wouldn't shut me down." 
So far, we've raised $20,000. We still have a few available at www.streetgiant.bigcartel.com. If we sell more, hopefully we can make another donation."

Josh drew more attention to @BPGlobalPR and the tee shirts by speaking at the TedXOil Spill conference in late June. Image below from Flickr user kk+.

THE STUMBLING BLOCKS

Josh anticipated BP would come after him and expected cease or desist order, but he was never asked to shut down the account. BP only asked Twitter to get Josh to indicate that the account was a parody, which he did, tweeting “We are not associated with Beyond Petroleum, the company that has been destroying the Gulf of Mexico for 52 days.” Twitter allows parody accounts as long as they meet the company's guidelines.

THE OUTCOME

The popularity of @BPGlobalPR has led to a surge in parody Twitter accounts, including @KermlinRussia (a spoof of Dmitry Medvedev's official Twitter account), @CEOSteveJobs, @GAPlogo, and @Fake_Uriminzok (a spoof of North Korea's official Twitter account).

What does Josh think about the growing number of parody accounts? He said:

"I think it's already happened. The two things I had going for myself are (1) I'm a comedian with very funny friends/contributors and (2) I had a very specific, very deserving target and the idea of parodying PR efforts was a relatively new one. I think if another account is going to have the same success I had they're going to have to take an all-new approach and they're going to have to bring something unique to the table. It's possible and it will happen, but won't pack the same punch unless it has both of those things."

In other words, his success can in large part be attributed to the high quality of the content (it was really funny), his strategy of targeting specific, high profile users, and the topical nature of the feed (it was in the news a lot). He has no plans yet to abandon the Twitter account, but believes that he lost the greater battle because he thinks that people, for the most part, are no longer thinking about what’s happening in the Gulf, sharing:

"I lost this PR battle. I may have won on Twitter, but BP has won the war. Sure, BP's reputation took a hit and their stocks took a hit, but for the most part this oil spill is over as far as the American public is concerned....The most effective PR is the PR you don't notice. It's the PR that makes things disappear. The oil hasn't disappeared, but the outrage has. If you're trying to motivate kids to be politically active and start movements, I think it's important to show them what they're up against. We live in a country run by corporations. These corporations control our government, they control our dialogue, and they control our culture. They are incredibly powerful. They create the need for the things they sell and their sole motive is profit. The health of people, the planet, and the nation is not a factor for them. They also perpetuate our culture of consumption and distraction, which only helps them get away with the things they get away with. If you're going to start a meaningful movement, you have to get attention, engage people, make them think and keep them engaged and enraged. It's not an easy thing to do. It's hard to get people to care about the big problems that seem out of their control, but in order to change anything it's going to take a lot of people deciding to care, even though it's not convenient to do so."

He and his friends are also planning to launch a new website—WorldGlobalPR.com—which he likens to The Onion for public relations. "I'm going back to the drawing board on this idea a little bit," he said. "The basic idea is that I'm going to do PR for anyone who deserves it. I want to set up a network/community of people across the country and we're going to cause a little trouble. The site itself will be made up of humorous articles, infographics, and videos, but it's a real goal of mine to make it constantly evolving and participatory entity."

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