On Sunday, before the second presidential debate, San Francisco BART’s social media team took to Twitter and trash-talked LA Metro using some of Donald Trump’s most iconic messages.
The goal: to push BART’s own message and promote an infrastructural overhaul of the Bay Area’s major light rail transportation system.
For example, BART borrowed Donald Trump’s promise that he would build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and make Mexico pay for it, writing “We’re gonna build a better BART, and Metro Los Angeles is gonna pay for it.” They followed the tweet with the hashtag #TheBARToftheDeal, after Trump’s best-seller The Art of the Deal:
https://twitter.com/SFBART/status/785285177886908417
LA Metro responded with a mere “#sad” hashtag on Twitter:
— Metro (@metrolosangeles) October 10, 2016
BART also played upon Trump’s comments that Mexico was not sending its “best people” to America:
https://twitter.com/SFBART/status/785288166638882816
BART also sent a tweet promoting Measure RR, a $3.5 billion investment program to overhaul the city’s public transportation infrastructure. Measure RR will appear on the November ballot. If it passes, residents in San Francisco, Alameda and Contra Costa counties would face significant tax hikes as a result of the investment.
https://twitter.com/SFBART/status/785291805390544896
Social media users went wild over the tweets:
https://twitter.com/JessetheMac/status/785357073303281664
Love these tweets!! Whoever's running these accounts are awesome!! :)
— Kenny Uong (@_KennyUong_) October 10, 2016
In the end, BART suggested that the politicized tweeting frenzy was in jest, adding that LA Metro was in on it the entire time:
https://twitter.com/SFBART/status/785303993597571073
https://twitter.com/SFBART/status/785322264724017152
BART has endured more serious public relations controversies in recent years, such as Black Lives Matter protests shutting down parts of the system, violent crime, and public urination and defecation in BART stations.
Follow Adelle Nazarian on Twitter and Periscope @AdelleNaz
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