Drivers and newspaper readers in Houston recently got a bit of a surprise: advertisements announcing the return of Enron. Before I explore what’s really happening here, let’s start by exploring why the ads shocked people.
In the early 1980s, Enron was incorporated in Houston, Texas, out of the merger between Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth, a Nebraska-based natural gas pipeline company. Under the leadership of Kenneth Lay, Enron transformed from a traditional energy company into a pioneer in energy trading. Their innovation? Treating energy like any other commodity that could be traded with complex financial instruments.
By the late 1990s, Enron was not just selling gas; it was trading energy futures, weather derivatives, and broadband services. They positioned themselves at the forefront of deregulation, much like how renewable energy companies today push for policies that favor decentralization and innovation. Enron’s stock soared, making it the seventh-largest corporation in the U.S. by market cap, and its executives were celebrated as visionaries in the world of energy and finance.
But, beneath the veneer of success was a castle built atop foundations of sand. Enron’s accounting practices were, to put it mildly, creative. They used off-the-books special purpose entities (SPEs) to hide debt, inflate profits, and keep liabilities off their balance sheet. This was similar to how some companies might today hide the true cost or environmental impact of their operations to make their balance sheets look greener than they are.
By 2001, the house of cards began to collapse. Investigations revealed that Enron’s reported profits were largely fictitious. The company’s stock plummeted, and it declared bankruptcy in December 2001, leading to one of the biggest corporate scandals of recent decades. This event not only wiped out thousands of jobs and billions in investments but also shook public trust in corporate governance. Even today, Enron is mentioned whenever a similar corporate scandal occurs.
The fallout from Enron’s collapse led to significant regulatory reforms, including the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, aimed at improving corporate transparency and accountability. Key figures like Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling faced legal consequences. Lay died after multiple heart attacks before sentencing, and Skilling was convicted on multiple charges, serving time in prison. The scandal also had a profound cultural impact, leading to increased scrutiny on corporate America.
People living in the Houston metro area were hit particularly hard. Thousands suddenly found themselves without a job, and other businesses that were associated with Enron had to lay off thousands more. The “roaring 90s” came to an abrupt end, as the oil-soaked city suffered a financial downturn that went deeper than what happened to the rest of the country after 9/11. The very reputation of the city’s business community and financial strength took a hit that lasted for years.
After the fallout that Houston suffered, all but the youngest people in the area were surely shocked to see billboards, newspaper ads, and even a renewed Enron.com website. The theme? “Let’s talk.”
On the homepage, there’s a video full of motivational and inspiring imagery, accompanied by this text: “Growth comes from the lessons we learn, integrity guides our actions, and the energy of tomorrow fuels our drive. Our history may have shaped us, but it will not define what we become.”
The website looks like a legitimate corporate website, is full of mission statements, and is flooded with the kinds of corporate platitudes you’d expect to see from a new Enron. They even have an acronym that appears as you scroll up, saying what the new Enron stands for:
There’s an invitation for the media to reach out with any inquiries, an invitation to apply for jobs, and the website invites us to “talk” by following them on Instagram, X/Twitter, and TikTok.
As you’d expect, an energy company wanting to operate in the 2020s needs to at least partially focus on renewables. In a press release, the associated social media accounts say that the new Enron is committed to “solving the energy crisis” with “scalable, sustainable solutions” that include renewables, energy storage, and “advanced power distribution systems”.
Most importantly, there’s a countdown underway. If you join their email list, they’re going to share something “very special” with you. This countdown appears to end on Monday, December 9th in the early morning.
While the website, social media accounts, corporate-looking video, ads, and billboards all look pretty legitimate and have many people wondering whether they should provide an e-mail address (and maybe even get a job), the truth is that the whole thing is an elaborate prank that’s still in the process of playing out.
The first clue comes from the website itself, buried in the TOS:
“THE INFORMATION ON THE WEBSITE IS FIRST AMENDMENT PROTECTED PARODY, REPRESENTS PERFORMANCE ART, AND IS FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY.”
Journalists and bloggers have also done some digging, and found that the new Enron is owned by The College Company, an organization that brought us the satirical “Birds Aren’t Real” conspiracy theory. The AV Club also points out that there’s a “company store” selling funny Enron merch, including “I am Enron” polos, a puffer vest emblazoned with “The Power of Yes”, and “Power turns me on” stickers. So, the prank is sure to bring in some bucks that the old Enron never quite managed to bring in.
Common sense says that a brand name as tarnished as Enron would be utterly worthless. After all, brands and companies need the public to trust them to get things done, right?
But, in 2024, that’s just not true. After all, voters recently elected a convicted fraudster, serial adulterer, and all-around flim flam man to the White House (again). On YouTube, we watch videos of destruction, much like the train wrecks entertainers would put on in the 19th century. The owners of The Onion recently paid an undisclosed amount of good money to buy the assets of Alex Jones’ InfoWars after he lost a lawsuit for lying about Sandy Hook families.
These days, bad names get attention, and they’re worth good money. You probably can’t get anybody to invest money in the new Enron if it was trying to get back into energy markets, but you can get people to buy funny merch and look at monetized social media accounts.
Featured image: the Enron logo (fair use, commentary).
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