Twenty-three years since its implosion and bankruptcy, social media influencers have resurrected the defunct energy company Enron—or at least its branding.
The energy company, defined by its angled “E” logo, was first exposed by Fortune’s Bethany McLean for its opaque accounting practices. The Enron scandal was later determined to be “one of the largest corporate frauds in history,” according to whistleblower Sherron Watkins, who recounted warning Enron’s former CEO Jeffrey Skilling of suspicious accounting activity in her May 2024 commentary article published by Fortune. In the end, the company’s collapse destroyed billions of dollars of shareholder value and employee 401(k)s and landed its former CEO and chief financial officer in prison.
Undeterred by the scandals, on Monday, the new owners of the Enron name resurrected it with a splashy generic advertisement declaring “We’re back.”
We're back. Can we talk? pic.twitter.com/9kt4g0Q84Z
— Enron (@Enron) December 2, 2024
Yet the comeback story may not be what it seems. The energy company as it existed two decades ago is likely not coming back. For now, the new owners of the Enron name are using it to sell everything from T-shirts to puffer vests on a revamped website, with a countdown timer teasing more to come in five days.
When reached by Fortune for comment, a spokesperson for the brand said the company had nothing further to share apart from a press release filled with core values and corporate platitudes about solving the global energy crisis.
According to documents filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Enron branding was purchased in May 2020 for just $275 by an LLC tied to social media influencer Connor Gaydos. Gaydos, along with fellow influencer Peter McIndoe, started the “Bird’s Aren’t Real” viral phenomenon, which satirically claimed the U.S. government had replaced all birds with spy drones to make a point about the absurdism of misinformation. Now, Gaydos has taken on a new position according to his LinkedIn—CEO of Enron.
A further dive into the Terms of Use and Conditions of Sale on Enron.com reveals the “website is First Amendment protected parody, represents performance art, and is for entertainment purposes only.”
Yet it’s unclear how far the influencer behind the name will take the joke. For the “Birds Aren’t Real” viral phenomenon, Gaydos and McIndoe concocted fake evidence, a fake history of the movement, and fake documents to support their fake claim, the New York Timesreported.
But while the Gen Z–fueled conspiracy may have been false, the thousands of dollars the pair raked in on merchandise per month was very real, and they’re continuing to sell.
Hopefully, Enron’s new owners will avoid the catastrophic deceit that led to the company’s collapse in the first place.