PANAMA – Telemetro Reporta, a news organization in Panama City, teamed with P4 Ogilvy & Mather to launch a campaign that lets potholes join in the conversation about road rehabilitation in the metro.
Dubbed The Tweeting Pothole, it does exactly what its called. It uses special puck-shaped pressure sensors connected on the web that tweets a complaint to the Panama City Ministry of Public Works whenever a car runs over them.
“I feel terrible. I just caused a tire damage to an old lady’s car,” a pothole tweets on the account El Hueco Twitero (The Tweeting Pothole), which currently has over 4,000 followers. “@MOPdePanama, see what you made me do,” it continued.
Telemetro Reporta supported the campaign on TV by creating a segment featuring the tweets together with man-on-the-street interviews of citizens fed up with the road craters. In addition, the Tweeting Pothole is also mapping the most damaged streets of the city on a dedicated website.
P4 Ogilvy & Mather reports that the idea has successfully started a wave of road repairs. It’s so effective in getting the government’s attention that Panama’s minister of Public Works Ramon Arosemena spoke in Telemetro Reporta last week to explain the conundrum, blamed on lack of funds and poor construction.
