A parody Twitter account created by a Pittsburgh-based paralegal is causing new headaches for Dr. Mehmet Oz’s campaign for Senate.
The account, created earlier this month, mocks a video from the veteran TV host’s April campaign that spoils the name of a Redner grocery store as it portrays the candidate as out of touch with voters in Pennsylvania he hopes to represent.
The campaign video shows the Republican walking through a Redner’s market in Pennsylvania, where he mispronounces the store’s name as “Wegners” and complains about inflation and the high costs of the vegetables needed to make a plate of “crudites.” “, which is better known as a vegetable dish. Oz told Newsmax in a recent interview that he got the name of the store wrong because he was exhausted after campaigning 18 hours a day. “I also got my children’s names wrong. I don’t think it’s a measure of someone’s ability to lead the community,” he said.
Jon Romanishin, a paralegal from Pennsylvania, took advantage of Oz’s mispronunciation of the Redner’s grocery store chain to launch the parody Twitter account Monday @grocerieswegner or Wegner’s Groceries, which is not a real store. The Twitter bio says “The Crudité Capital of Central PA.”
In a tweet that night, Romanishin embedded the Oz video and wrote, “Repeatedly told @DrOz we had pre-made vegetable trays…excuse ‘Crudité’…in the deli starting at $5.99. $7.99 with guacamole and gravy. Vote @ John Fetterman!” He told CNBC in an interview Thursday that since he posted the tweet, the video has received nearly 4 million views.
Oz’s original video was shared more than 300 times on Facebook and 600 times on Twitter, reaching more than 250,000 people, while the parody tweet was shared more than 4,000 times on Facebook and 62,000 times on Twitter, reaching more than 250,000 people. more than 32 million people, according to social media tracking site CrowdTangle.
John Fetterman, his Democratic Party rival running for the same Pennsylvania Senate seat, took advantage of free social media and relentlessly mocked Oz for his use of the highbrow term crudites, a French word pronounced kroo-de- tay. His campaign raised $500,000 within 24 hours of the video’s release on social media.
Fetterman and Oz are vying for a Senate seat to be vacated by Republican Senator Pat Toomey. An average of Real Clear Politics polls has Fetterman ahead of Oz by about 8 percentage points.
Since Monday’s launch, the Twitter account now has more than 23,000 followers, including Fetterman’s campaign account.
Mary Anne Marsh, a veteran Democratic Party strategist, told CNBC that the account represents how the digital age has transformed campaigning, and that sometimes to propel a candidate, all it takes is someone with an account in the social networks. “Anyone with a social media account can now change a career as much as any ad, story or discussion,” she said. “That puts more political power in the hands of the people and when used well it’s good for democracy.”
The Wegner campaign account itself was so convincing that it made political strategists and celebrities apparently convinced that it had been created by a member of Fetterman’s social media team or that the Wegner store was real.
“In future campaign trainings I facilitate, I will use Oz Grocery’s video on what not to do when engaging voters, but I will also contrast it with how successful Fetterman’s digital campaign has been,” Atima Omara, a party strategist, tweeted in response to the tweet from Wegner’s account. Ken Olin, an actor, said in response to Wegner’s account trolling Oz: “Ugh. You know you’re losing when a grocery store trolles you.”
Norm Eisen, former President Barack Obama’s chief ethics officer, said the video will “empty Oz.”
Romanishin, who said he voted for Fetterman in the Democratic primary but is not affiliated with the campaign and was not paid to create the account., he subsequently posted other tweets pointing to the Oz campaign video, and according to Twitter data from his account that he shared with CNBC, all of his tweets combined have more than 16 million impressions.
“It’s so ridiculous and shows what a fraud Dr. Oz is, I thought. And then I latched onto him using the wrong name,” Romanishin said in explaining why he launched the Twitter account. “I thought he was going to do this just for a laugh.” He said he plans to vote for Fetterman again in the November general election against Oz.
Romanishin worked to troll Oz’s grocery store visit by partnering via Twitter with TJ Harley, a graphic designer and president of Atlanta-based Harley Creative. The company’s website says it is a design studio specializing in graphic design and visual communication strategies.
Harley says that shortly after the Wegner’s Groceries video and account went live, he decided to create some of his own posts mocking the Oz grocery store debacle and tweet his own ads targeting the Republican Senate candidate’s trip to the market. .
“I sort of stumbled upon that video. Dr. Oz at the grocery store. He blew up the price of vegetables and called it Wegners and bought salsa and tequila. It was totally ridiculous. Somehow I later stumbled upon the bill of Twitter that someone did,” said Harley. “I don’t even know the guy. I just thought he was funny. He just had less than 100 followers at the time.”
On Tuesday, Harley tweeted ads on Romanishin Wegner’s account mocking Oz, including one showing a bag of groceries and vegetables with the text on the sign reading “Wegner’s Groceries. Your raw HQ.” Harley’s tweet on Tuesday read “first ad campaign.” He says that he made the ads in his Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop at home.
Another Harley ad shows a bottle of tequila with the Wegner logo on it and accompanying text reads “Veggie platter or raw? Tequila makes it A-OK.”
Harley showed CNBC examples of the Wegner T-shirts he made. Since he posted them on the Cotton Bureau website, he has sold at least 50 at $30 each. Romanishin said he bought two of the jerseys and plans to wear one to a Fetterman fundraiser in Pittsburgh that is scheduled for later this month.
Correction: Dr. Mehmet Oz messed up the name of a Redner grocery store. An earlier version mislabeled the store.
Source: www.cnbc.com