When most of us think of airport security we don't usually think of laughter or jokes or any action even loosely related to happiness.
We think of getting patted down, of having to annoyingly take off our shoes and of losing that really expensive bottle of perfume that we accidentally put in our carry-on. But by hopping on social media, TSA has injected some much-needed humor and personality into its PR persona.
The agency's Instagram feed, which has over 90,000 followers, is essentially a collection of the most ridiculous things that people try to get past airport security. Some of the attempts are laughable, like a utility knife hidden between a Scooby-Doo greeting card.
Some of the other attempts are more clever and, in turn, more scary. A taser disguised as a bejeweled lipstick and a smartphone case with secret compartments for knives, are just two ways people have tried to smuggle in prohibited items, according to TSA's Instagram. And there's no dearth of items to photograph. The TSA confiscates approximately 40 firearms per week, according to Wired.
The organization sees their Instagram and Twitter account as educational. "We're not trying to make a statement that people are trying to do anything nefarious with these items," says TSA Press Secretary Ross Feinstein. "We're just trying to alert people that these are still prohibited items."
Bob Burns, known as Blogger Bob, is the TSA employee who started the Instagram feed. Seeing ridiculous items come in everyday, Burns knew that an Instagram account would be an interesting way of educating people.
"I used Instagram personally so I knew the kind of photos people shared, and I just knew that the photos we had from the week in review would be successful," he says.
TSA is not the only government agency to have an active presence on social media. Almost every department of the U.S. government has a Twitter and many have embraced Instagram as well. The U.S. Census Bureau, with approximately 51.2K Twitter followers, regularly tweets out interesting statistics and adds some humor to their twitter bio, which reads: "Your trusted source for quality statistics about our people, places and our economy and a merry band of Lovable Nerds. "
The Department of Interior also has a strong social media presence with 188K followers on Twitter and over 250K followers on Instagram. But it would be hard for them not to get a lot of followers given their propensity to Instagram and tweet out adorable animal photos.
