Support the fact-based journalism you rely on with a donation to Marketplace today. Give Now!
Codebreaker

Tweet becomes a Robocop social phenomenon

John Moe Feb 11, 2011

It all started with a tweet from a guy in Philadelphia named @MT. It was directed at Detroit mayor Dave Bing: “@mayordavebing Philadelphia has a statue of Rocky & Robocop would kick Rocky’s butt. He’s a GREAT ambassador for Detroit.”

Bing wrote back: “@MT There are not any plans to erect a statue to Robocop. Thank you for the suggestion.”

The exchange, so absurd but taken just seriously enough, led to a Facebook movement and then on to the crowd source funding site Kickstarter where a Detroit non-profit began raising money to erect a statue of Robocop. It’s one of those things, you know? The joke isn’t funny enough for one person to put up $50,000, but it might be funny enough for 25,000 people to put up two bucks each. So far they’ve raised over $7000 toward that goal.

There’s a lot happening in the world.  Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. 

You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. 

Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.