Yesterday's giant UC Berkeley student, worker, and teacher walkout protesting the planned tuition increase and the privatization of Cal was aided on Wednesday by the tweets of the always interesting Ellen DeGeneres of The Ellen Show, who's Twitter account has over 3 million followers (I'm one of them)
(Hey, it's Follow Friday! Follow me on Twitter!)
Ellen DeGeneres started with this:
Are you in Berkeley, California? Are you near Berkeley? Can you get to Berkeley by tomorrow? Then keep following my Tweets. 6:41 PM Sep 22nd from web
Then...
Tweet to UC Berkeley: Students, faculty, honored guests, keep studying my Tweets. There's gonna be a test today.11:30 AM Sep 23rd from web
And then...
People of Berkeley: Go to Sather Gate NOW. First 10 to whisper MUFFIN to Aaron get a Samsung Jack phone & are in the running 4 a huge prize.
Finally...
Followers in Berkeley, Californian the games over for today. Thanks for playing and keep watching my TWEETS.6:46 PM Sep 23rd from web
And today...
You saw my tweets to the UC Berkeley students yesterday -- today find out what I made them do! They had to bare it all. http://su.pr/2N2oUP
The person who stripped down in the ASUC Store got a prize.
Video:
Ok. Once again, Ellen's shown the power of Twitter, but in the process managed to give the impression that students were just hanging out with nothing better to do. In the video that appeared on the show there's no mention of the issue that was to take place the next day.
Plus, there's no tweet from Ellen expressing support for the protesters or the students - many of whom are followers of Ellen on Twitter - who are being squeezed by the cost to get an education.
What did Nicholette get for being in the buff in the ASUC? A $1,000 and a trip to see The Ellen Show. Man, for all that Ellen could have made a bigger statement by paying for her semester at Berkeley!
Samsung may not have wanted to get involved in a political statement as the sponsor of this tweet stunt, but given that students need money to buy their products, Samsung missed the boat here. Moreover, Ellen DeGeneres has enough juice to have talked them into something more productive than was done Wednesday.
Like what? Well she could have driven followers to the UC Student Walkout website for them to "get educated" on the issue and how it impacts students.
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