Tweet it and delete it—a smart, new PR gambit?
A congressman claims he ‘punked’ the press, gaining attention by sending a tweet and deleting it. Would this practice work for an edgy brand?
The tweets appeared to be intimate, with one saying, “Happy Valentines beautiful girl.” Cohen quickly deleted both tweets, raising the media’s suspicion. Journalists were curious why the never-married 63-year-old congressman was tweeting a 24-year-old bikini model.
Turns out Ms. Brink is his daughter, although he hadn’t made that public. Cohen claims he learned just three years ago that he had a daughter. As he told WREG-TV in Memphis, “I Googled her mother, found out she had a child, and the math looked pretty accurate.”
In this case, Cohen wasn’t doing anything wrong, but after he deleted his tweet, The Sunlight Foundation, which catalogues deleted tweets sent by politicians, flagged his seeming indiscretion.
That helps prove one thing: Regardless of whether you’re a politician, if you “Tweet and Delete,” there’s a good chance someone will notice and become suspicious.
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