With Some Help from WTTG, Tucker Barnes’ ‘Sea Foam’ Live Shot Goes Viral

WTTG meteorologist Tucker Barnes, who spent Saturday doing hurricane live shots from the boardwalk in Ocean City, MD, has become an internet celebrity after his Saturday reports filled with a mysterious foam blowing out of the ocean. (Watch the video, above).

The foam — or as Barnes described it, “organic material” — he is standing in, however, is actually raw sewage that collected in the water during Hurricane Irene. WTTG, a Fox owned-and-operated station, was conscious of the viral potential of the video from the get-go: on Saturday at 7:54 p.m., the station reported on Facebook and Twitter that a hashtag had been created based on Barnes’ live shot: #seafoam.

By 8:13 p.m., WTTG was reporting that #seafoam was the top trending topic in the D.C. region. And by 8:54 p.m., Barnes had his own Facebook fan page, which has already amassed more than 2,800 likes: “Tucker the Foam Man on Fox 5 News.”

Regardless of viral potential, Fox News — which did a segment on the sea foam this morning — reports that exposure to the material can actually be very dangerous. “It can kill birds,” Dr. Marc Siegal said. “It has pollutants in it. It has bacteria in it. It has proteins in it. And prolonged exposure can even cause birth defects.” Watch:

Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews.