Fake BP Twitter Account Draws Followers With Oil-Spill Satire
A Twitter user with an account dubbed BPGlobalPR is posting satirical entries about the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico–and already has more than twice as many followers as BP America’s actual account.
The BPGlobalPR account includes tweets such as “Doing our best to turn oil into oilinade. So far the stuff tastes TERRIBLE.”
With posts such as “The good news: Mermaids are real. The bad news: They are now extinct. #bpcares,” the stream of tweets from the account is long on dark humor and subtle outrage at BP’s actions. It’s also peppered with responses to twitterers who did not know that the account was fake and were angered at the thought that an oil company would post content such as “If we had a dollar for every complaint about this oil spill, it wouldn’t compare to our current fortune. Oil is a lucrative industry!”
The increasing popularity of the account–and the fact that a few people apparently think it could be real–speaks volumes about the public’s view of the oil company as the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico worsens. BP is struggling to cap the leaking well, which has been spewing at least 5,000 barrels of oil a day since an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig April 20. Oil already has been coming ashore on Louisiana’s environmentally fragile coastline.
