It was a brief idea that lasted all of nine glorious hours: the vice-chairman of US corporate banking giant JPMorgan, Jimmy Lee, announced he would be taking over the @jpmorgan Twitter feed at 1pm today. By last night, however, major news outlets around the world were reporting the idea as completely scrapped because of the thousands of angry, abusive tweets the company received at the hashtag #AskJPM.
It all began with this tweet:
Tomorrow at 1pm ET $JPM Vice Chairman Jimmy Lee takes over @JPMorgan to answer your questions for 1 hour. Tweet your Q early using #AskJPM
— J.P. Morgan (@jpmorgan) November 13, 2013
It didn’t take long for the tweets to pile in, and a vast majority were far from friendly:
What's it like working with Mexican drug cartels? Do they tip? #AskJPM
— David Dayen (@ddayen) November 13, 2013
#AskJPM How many times has Jimmy Lee heard a version of the "he's lent out so much money…and gotten most of it back" quote
— Matthew Zeitlin (@MattZeitlin) November 13, 2013
Do you repeat "it's just business, it's not personal" like a mantra before bed? Or do you just rely on Xanax? #AskJPM
— alexis goldstein (@alexisgoldstein) November 13, 2013
Isn't it better for the economy having a bunch of jobs paying $50,000 to $60,000 a year than one making 7, 8 or 9 figures? #AskJPM
— Phil Perspective (@PhilPerspective) November 13, 2013
Have your highly-paid underlings learned not to take notes during a criminal f**king conspiracy? #AskJPM http://t.co/1AT2Lc7QJf
— Kevin Murphy (@kcm74) November 13, 2013
At what number of Billions of Dollars in fines will it no longer be profitable to run your criminal enterprise? #askjpm
— Amy Hunter (@amy10506) November 13, 2013
What's the best way to get blood stains out of a clown suit? #AskJPM
— Eddy Elfenbein (@EddyElfenbein) November 13, 2013
Hey, @jpmorgan: What's it like knowing that you've escaped punishment for securities fraud again & again? #AskJPM http://t.co/5gFxOtlW3O
— The Other 98% (@other98) November 13, 2013
#askjpm since twitter didn't work out for you, have you considered doing a live AMA on reddit?
— Scott Springer (@scott_springer) November 14, 2013
I have Mortgage Fraud, Market Manipulation, Credit Card Abuse, Libor Rigging and Predatory Lending AM I DIVERSIFIED? #AskJPM
— Downtown Josh Brown (@ReformedBroker) November 13, 2013
How many $jpm bankers does it take to screw in a lightbulb? None, they just foreclose on the house. #AskJPM
— money mcbags (@moneymcbags) November 13, 2013
Did you always want to be part of a vast, corrupt criminal enterprise or did you "break bad"? #AskJPM
— Kevin Murphy (@kcm74) November 13, 2013
By the time the company had had enough…
Tomorrow's Q&A is cancelled. Bad Idea. Back to the drawing board.
— J.P. Morgan (@jpmorgan) November 14, 2013
… it was far too late. Not even Jamie Dimon could undo what had been done:
How not to do it: "At least 2/3rds of tweets sent using the hashtag #AskJPM displayed some type of negative comment" http://t.co/G6BF9JKzVB
— Alice Ross (@aliceemross) November 14, 2013
Even Hacktivist group Anonymous weighed in on one of their many Twitter outlets:
Know why Rob Ford's really on front page of WSJ? Goldman, CITI, and #AskJPM are fighting for the right to hire him as chief party planner.
— Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) November 14, 2013
The wisest tweet, ironically, came from a fellow banker, who said:
Perhaps what #AskJPM shows is that social capital is harder to earn than financial capital. Which is why it may end up being more valuable.
— Guillaume Lebleu (@giyom) November 14, 2013
[Image via Twitter]