BP Public Relations Twitter Feed a Gas

Tuesday, 01 June 2010 | by Pat's Picks

Imagine the surprise when BP’s public relations department let this gem loose on the unsuspecting Twitter-verse: “I’ve gotta say, at night the gulf really doesn’t look that bad.” No, it’s not a corporate version of reverse psychology - it’s a fake Twitter feed set up in the wake of the company’s embarrassing oil spill.

After more than a month of failed attempts, it was inevitable that this would turn up sooner or later. That reminds me of my other favorite BP fake tweet: “We are very upset that Operation: Top Kill has failed. We are running out of cool names for these things.”

An article I read in the Daily News last week says the Twitter handle has been able to survive because it hasn’t crossed the parody line. Twitter allows for parody but takes down accounts that impersonate well-known people or companies. Judging by their leak-plugging track record, we’ll be enjoying fake BP tweets for quite some time.