You may have heard by now and if you haven’t then you’re probably better off.
But O.J. Simpson has officially joined Twitter and it’s one of the most perplexing, bizarre, tone-deaf displays that’s come around social media in a long, long time.
Nevertheless, this move might be calculated. O.J. Simpson joining Twitter just might be one of the biggest public relations moves of all time because it perfectly lines up with a very important anniversary.
If the American public never heard the words “O… J… Simpson” ever again then we would be much better off. Unfortunately, America is a celebrity-obsessed culture and even when it comes to the infamous; there’s still a huge market for it.
From the new Netflix movie “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile” Ted Bundy drama starring Zac Efron to anything to do with reality television like “Keeping up with the Kardashians”; it’s a curiosity that’s incomparable. Americans love it.
There was the Oscar winning ESPN documentary “O.J. Simpson: Made in America” and then there was the hit FX television “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story,” which won the Golden Globe and Emmy Award for Best Miniseries.
And then he got released from prison after he made parole for his 2008 Las Vegas robbery charges where he held a memorabilia dealer at gunpoint for allegedly stealing his “personal property.” He was sentenced to 32 years in prison and made parole after 9.
But now that he’s out; and officially joined social media, specifically Twitter, with already three posted videos claiming to redeem his reputation amongst his staunchest critics.
He views it as him versus the world where everybody, at least almost everybody, wanting to have nothing to do with his boisterous personality given his checkered past (that’s putting it lightly). Yet, here we are; forced to deal with his shenanigans all over again.
However, maybe this was orchestrated. Maybe this was on purpose. There’s a reason why; it’s because the 25th anniversary of his famous white bronco chase through the streets of Los Angeles was on June 17th 1994. Coincidence?
That’s probably not the case.
Twenty-five years ago today Al Cowlings’ white Ford Bronco became one of the most famous and infamous vehicles of all time as he led police on a low-speed pursuit across Los Angeles with O.J. Simpson in the back seat.
An estimated 95 million people watched the event unfold on live television before the vehicle arrived at Simpson’s Brentwood home and he surrendered to police without incident.
And he suddenly popped up on social media congruent with this infamous chase through the streets of Los Angeles? Oh, come on!
No, one of the theories behind this infamous chase was to gain empathy through the public. It was a public relations stunt because he was a beloved man in America and nobody could believe he would do such heinous violent things in the murder of his ex-wife and her then-boyfriend, right?
Simpson’s new resurgence on social media is likely a ploy to distract from the 25th anniversary of the infamous white bronco chase – and it worked. That’s the sad thing; it worked.
While many news institutions are discussing the 25th anniversary of this insane venture of a wanted criminal through Los Angeles, the bigger story just became O.J. Simpson joining Twitter for the first time. It’s crazy, but it’s also true.
Nobody was mentioning O.J. last week. Why now? It’s simple.
