About a month after an Ohio University student captured the attention of more than 2,000 followers with a spoof Twitter account using OU President Roderick McDavis' photo, another account has been created — this time for the first lady.
@FirstLadyMcD, sporting a formal photo of Ohio University's first lady Deborah McDavis, penned her first tweet late this week. Although the account does not yet have 20 followers, it looks to be following in the footsteps of the popular spoof account — @PrezMcDavis — that has been tweeting irreverent comments under the “Not Roderick McDavis” name this quarter.
However, the student running the @PrezMcDavis account, who asked that his name be withheld, said he's not sure he's on board.
“If someone else wants to model their account after mine that's fine with me, I'm nowhere close to the first parody twitter – but I don't know that I necessarily want my twitter to be associated with another person's parody if I don't know anything about the person behind it or what their tweets will be like,” the student said in an email. “I like having control over my account.”
“Not Deborah McDavis” describes herself as, “This is not the real Lady McDavis [but a parody]. A sexy lady trying to keep PrezMcDavis in line.”
The account's first tweet appears to reference the recent faculty evaluations of McDavis; of the 311 faculty members who filled out an evaluation, only 14 percent said they believed McDavis was an effective leader for OU.
The parodied first lady kicked off her account by tweeting, “@PrezMcDavis, even if 100% of the faculty disapproved of the job you're doing, I'd still approve of you #notsanctioned #xoxo.”
The account followed with a tweet mentioning @PrezMcDavis' drinking — the subject that appears most often on the McDavis spoof account.
The creator of @FirstLadyMcD, as well as the real Deborah McDavis, could not be reached for comment.
The student behind the @PrezMcDavis account has amassed more than 2,300 followers in the past month and regularly tweets comments such as, “Saturday is the week saying: I'm sorry for making you do all that stuff these last few days, how about we drink dangerously? #SaturDaiquiri.”
The fake McDavis said he does not know who set up the @FirstLadyMcD account.
“I guess I'll kind of keep an eye on it and see where it goes, but I'm perfectly happy remaining Bachelor McDavis,” the student said in an email.
Although the @FirstLadyMcD officiator directed her first tweet at @PrezMcDavis, the fake president, who regularly interacts with Twitter users, said he doesn't plan to give this first lady any special treatment.
“I'll reply to her as much as I would with anyone else, but I don't know if I'm going to make it a point to regularly tweet at her,” the student wrote.
The real McDavis had not seen the account parodying his wife yesterday, as he was preparing for today's commencement, said Becky Watts, McDavis' chief of staff. More than 4,000 students are graduating this weekend, according to a university news release.
Although the Office of the President originally contacted Twitter officials about the McDavis spoof account, reporting it as an imposter account, both accounts follow Twitter's guidelines about parody accounts, as they clearly state they are not the real Roderick or Deborah McDavis.
“It appears the first (account) is complying with the rules that Twitter has by making it clear the individual is pretending to be the president, making it clear the person is not really the president, but we have no response to (either of the accounts),” Watts said.
rm279109@ohiou.edu
@ThePostCampus
