Kim Kardashian (Reuters)
What did California law enforcement expect when they enlisted celebrities to help warn the public of the impending closure of a major freeway?
Probably not this.
Kim Kardashian, one of several celebrities with Twitter followings in the millions, was asked by the L.A.P.D to warn her followers of the impending highway closure.
Kardashian complied, tweeting on Friday: "Remember this weekend the 405 Fwy is gonna be closed between the San Fernando Valley and the West Side!!"
Just one problem. The closure is in two weeks.
So the "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" star tried to correct her mistake, tweeting: "Remember next weekend the 405 Fwy is gonna be closed between the San Fernando Valley and the West Side!!"
Wrong again.
Kardashian erased both initial Twitter messages and finally got it right: "Stay away from the 405 Fwy the weekend of July 16 & 17, it will be closed btwn the 10 Fwy and 101 Fwy North & South!"
Along with press conferences, advertising, e-mail alerts and electronic freeway message signs, the L.A.P.D. asked Kardashian (8 million followers), Lady Gaga (11.3 million followers), Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore (7 million and 3.7 million respectively) to tweet about the closure, being called "Carmageddon" in Los Angeles. A 10-mile stretch of the freeway is due to be closed while a bridge is demolished and replaced as part of a $1 billion road improvement project.
"The whole idea is just to re-message the theme of avoiding the 405 area and that it's going to be a mess if people don't stay away," LAPD spokesman, Lt. Andy Neiman, said Wednesday. "Twitter is a way to reach that whole demographic that could be oblivious to the 405 closure for that weekend."
Unless of course the tweeter gets the dates wrong.
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