John Legere, the 61-year-old CEO of T-Mobile, announced that he is stepping down. In doing so, he will end one of the most annoying ad campaigns on Twitter — promoting his own tweets.
T-Mobile is in the midst of plans to merge with Sprint, and a plan for a new CEO isn't a total shock. Last month, the Wall Street Journal reported that Legere was in talks to become the new CEO of WeWork, a rumor he shut down today in a conference call with reporters and analysts.
It's unclear what his next job will be, but for now one thing seems clear: His reign of promoted tweet terror will be coming to a close.
‼️ I’ve got some important news! On May 1, I’ll be handing the magenta CEO reigns over to @SievertMike as my successor. This move has been under development for a long time and I couldn’t be more confident in the future of @TMobile under his leadership.
Legere isn't just a CEO, he's a cool CEO. You can tell because he wears sneakers and T-shirts (aways in T-Mobile's magenta hue, of course) instead of stuffy suits. He also wears his hair long. The combination of his hairline and length can best be described as:
• touring keyboardist with Whitesnake (not an original member)
• former ’80s teen star with a tenuous grasp on his new recovery
• untenured comp lit professor
• proprietor of year-round haunted hayride
• bartender at Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville restaurant (Las Vegas location)
• mom's new "friend"
Here's Legere in 2019 versus how he looked in 2002:
Legere's social media footprint is vast. He regularly livestreams a cooking show from his kitchen, for some reason.
If you don't follow the ins and outs of the telecom industry, Legere is probably not a familiar name. However, if you are a regular citizen of the internet, specifically Twitter, you may be aware of Legere for this reason: his incessant advertisements.
Unlike 99.9% of large companies, T-Mobile doesn't just run Twitter ads from its main account. It also pays for promoted tweets from its CEO's personal account. And judging by how many times I've seen these ads, it does this a lot.
Now that Legere is moving on, he'll be taking with him any new followers he's acquired from T-Mobile footing the Twitter ad bill.
T-Mobile declined to confirm whether Legere had ever paid to promote his own tweets, or if (more likely) they were paid for by the company. T-Mobile also would not say if it planned to continue this horrifying vanity exercise with its new CEO's tweets.
Advertising is an art, not a science — but it seems to defy all logic that promoting Legere's tweets was a highly successful campaign. While it may have gained him some new followers, it also enraged people who were sick of seeing him. Look at the replies to any of his promoted tweets and you'll see dozens of people who are annoyed by the ads.
@JohnLegere I'm blocking this, i see this all damn day.
@JohnLegere What is blocking you on Twitter like?
@JohnLegere im sick of your ads please stop
@JohnLegere john i swear to god if i see this ad again im switching to virizon
@JohnLegere show me this ad one more fuckin time i dare u
In short, rest in power to the most annoying CEO on Twitter.
Just blocked John Legere so I can stop seeing AT&T ads on my tl .. *chefs kiss*
How do I unfollow @JohnLegere’s T-Mobile promo posts where he tries to shoehorn himself and his company into being attractive to millennials?
I had to block that CEO of TMobile because his sponsored tweets were so annoying and I felt like blocking aggressively.
I just blocked the CEO of TMobile cause if I have to see that dumb face in a chef hat one more time, I’ll lose it