The meme, one of the Internet’s greatest blessings, is now the Federal Student Aid office’s curse.
“If this is you, then you’d better fill out your FAFSA: fafsa.gov,” read the tweet, accompanied by the image of actress Kristen Wiig and the caption “Help me. I’m poor.”
This @FAFSA tweet is what happens when your social media rep is great at analytics & terrible with culture. pic.twitter.com/d671PyXsWG
— Mikki Kendall (@Karnythia) June 25, 2014
The meme was taken from this
, which might evoke a chuckle from anyone familiar with the movie:
But in the context of poverty and access to higher education, the tweet fell flat and the backlash came swiftly.
Good morning @FAFSA. Why mock poor people trying to get a #college education? #AskFAFSA #DegreesNotDebt pic.twitter.com/0Jka02tAHU
— sfpelosi (@sfpelosi) June 25, 2014
Beyond violating the most basic “though shalt not make fun of poverty in America” tenet, the tweet also fed into one of the more damaging misconceptions about FAFSA: that it is only a resource for low-income students.
FAFSA, of course, is a resource to nearly every student — and most colleges require filling out FAFSA as a qualification not just for federal financial aid, but also for school-specific grants or scholarships.
At the recommendation of President Obama’s “Middle Class Task Force,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan simplified the FAFSA form, which was at one point an unnecessarily onerous deterrent to students applying for financial aid.
FAFSA deleted its “Help me. I’m poor” tweet not long after sending it and issued an apology on Twitter: “We apologize for the insensitivity of our previous tweet. Our goal is to make college a reality for all. We’re very sorry.”
You can see how sorry FAFSA is here:
We apologize for the insensitivity of our previous tweet. Our goal is to make college a reality for all. We’re very sorry. — Federal Student Aid (@FAFSA) June 25, 2014
Of course, as more organizations and institutions try to recruit social media-savvy employees, these types of public relations disasters will probably become more common — if only because memes and tact don’t always mix.