@BPGlobalPR - the best thing on the internet since YoungBro

In case you haven't heard, there is a popular twitter page making headlines: @BPGlobalPR.

The site started shortly after the oil spill in the Gulf, and it has been raising money and raising hell by selling shirts to benefit the cleanup and posting ironic but seemingly true "tweets" about the oil spill. Though the true author is unknown, he writes under the names Leroy Stick and Terry, or BP Terry.

Terry has been pretty vocal with the press and had granted several interviews and press releases, including one today at Twtrcon.

The @BPGlobalPR "experiment," if we're going to call it that, brings up the obvious fact that there is really nothing you can do to protect your brand and corporate image in today's social-media-driven world. But what struck me was Terry's take on the purpose of his twitter site:

"Our main mission with the twitter account is/was/and will always be to distract people from the mess. You know, keep their brains too busy for any thinking. The Internet is full of great information, essays and ideas. But no one is interested in that hogwash, people want to see photos of cats wearing wigs. That’s what gets the attention, that’s what distracts. Our aim is to be that cat in a wig."

Ok, so he was obviously kidding, right? I mean, don't we use the internet for the greater good?

I'll admit, my favorite blog in the world is The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Bro, which is essentially just a UVa frat boy writing about the vacuous day-to-day life of, well, a UVa frat boy. But hearing (reading) Terry say that he's trying to be the "cat in a wig," it makes me think that maybe the fact that his twitter has been getting so much attention isn't actually a good thing.

Take the perma-criticism of Twitter as an example. Do I want to know what Justin Bieber ate for lunch today? No. (Yes. ) We're so saturated with dribble all over the internet, sometimes it is hard to remember to use those powers for good and not evil.

That is, if you consider spending an hour reading gossip columns about Danielle from The Real Housewives of New Jersey to be evil. Which I do. Mostly.