Bevii Shooting Hoax Gets Startup Banned From UNC Servers


New social startup Bevii used what looked like a school shooting alert to draw attention to its new network, much to the distaste of those who saw it initially.

Bevii’s fake campus shooting alert was on second glance a shot across the bow at Facebook, and the startup’s scope is similar to that of the social network when it first began years ago.

But what Bevii chose to do to turn heads worked — and soured many on the new name in social.

Bevii has drawn universal scorn for the cheap and in poor taste marketing stunt, in which a campus alert was emailed around suggesting there had been a shooting — but Valleywag explains:

“I’m no marketing wizard, but if you try to trick your classmates into believing there is a violent criminal act occurring on campus, the stunt might just blow up in your face. The crew at Bevii is learning this the very hard way.”

Bevii’s intent in faking a school shooting alert cannot be glossed over — the verisimilitude of such a notice would likely cause the reader to not immediately assume their chain is being yanked. After all, what kind of a person would joke about school shootings?

The email, “sponsored by the Social Media Police of Chapel Hill,” begins:

“Chapel Hill police are investigating a report of innovation which occurred around 10:01 a.m. Monday, October 14, in the general area of Franklin St. and N. Columbia St. At precisely 10:01am yesterday, in broad daylight, shots were fired on Franklin Street. The victim is being described as a blue, outdated social network.”

Get it? A blue, outdated social network. Ahahahahah.

It continues:

“The current suspect is Bevii, a mobile, location-based social network only available to select Universities. Bevii, apparently, makes and values your relationships automatically based on who you spend time with. For more information on the suspect, click here [link.]… Reportedly, over 500 UNC Students have already been affected by the victim.”

Bevii’s fake campus shooting alert has not been addressed officially by the startup — which has reportedly been banned by school servers in the wake of the offensive marketing stunt.

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