SMRT “Fail” Bus/Train a joke in Twitter-verse

A flash design to show that Singapore Mass Rapid Transit (or SMRT ) is green has become a big joke in Twitter-verse.

Bloggers and Tweeters in Singapore have highlighted the similarity between the new SMRT design and the classic “Fail Whale” that appears on Twitter whenever the social networking site is overcapacity.

One has to wonder how up-to-date are the folks at SMRT with the trends in social media. Otherwise, could it be SMRT’s attempt to poke fun at the social networks?

The “failure” references do not bode well for SMRT in social media or the brand as the public transport provider was recently under fire for their lapse of security that resulted in the vandalism of their trains and increase complains about the over-capacity of SMRT public transports, especially the trains.

Personally, I have been abroad and 3-5 minutes wait for the next train is a luxury. I recently took KL Transit and one often have to wait 15mins or more for the next train.

But leaving the brand to jokes and attack from social media is something not to be discounted. The biggest problem is that when something is on the Internet, Google never forgets. This failure doesn’t bode well for SMRT’s image.

Twitter Fail Whale has become an icon with the Web2.0 universe.