BlackBerry’s Alicia Keys has Fallin’ into an iPhone Tweet Scandal

A few weeks back when BlackBerry introduced its new OS and corresponding handsets during a multi-location launch event, a real headline grabber was the company’s hiring of Alicia Keys as its new Global Creative Director. Who knew that apart from being an award-winning musician, Keys somehow found the time to educate herself on how to become a mobile device company’s creative visionary?

Now, it isn’t a new idea for a company to bring in a big name to really spruce up the dog and pony events it hosts, or even a product that it really wants to drive toward the masses. At this point, tisk-tisking such a strategy is a waste of energy because it’s not going to change anything.

What is worth tisk-tisking, though, is when such an individual allegedly uses a competitor’s product in a very open forum and then pulls the “I got hacked” card, less than a month into the job.

You see, yesterday it was revealed that a tweet was posted on Keys’ official @aliciakeys account allegedly by the singer via an iPhone, not BlackBerry’s fresh Z10. As a new BlackBerry employee, the Z10 should theoretically be her device of choice.

When the news got out, Keys and likely a collection of managers, agents, publicists, personal assistants and business partners went into damage control mode by posting the following statement on her Twitter account: “What the h*ll?!!!! Looks like I’ve been hacked… I like @Drake but that wasn’t my tweet :-(.”

Ah yes, the hacked excuse. Now, I’d have to think that if Keys was in fact hacked, the culprit would’ve posted something far more controversial and damning than “started from the bottom now were here.” Yes, the grammar is poor, but would a hacker really use his access to post something so vague and boring on a celeb’s Twitter? Doubtful.

A hacker would be far more controversial (duh). Maybe he’d suggest that Keys is joining Metallica; kicks puppies in front of elementary schools; or prefers lip-syncing even more than Beyonce does. I don’t know, I’d expect something at least that creative and odd from a hacker.

The very vanilla post in question leads me to believe that it was Keys, or at the very least, one of her handlers. If that was in fact the case, she should’ve bit the bullet and admitted the error in judgment as soon as possible. Lance Armstrong didn’t do that, and look where that left him.

Anyways, I’m not terribly angry with this so there’s no use in tearing Keys too much of a new one here. All I’d like to see, however, is a bit of accountability. Sure it’s easy to suggest that an evildoer of a hacker that resides in a dank suburban basement somewhere is to blame, but it’s arguable that being truthful and admitting an F-up is a hell of a lot simpler.

Besides, BlackBerry’s roots are Canadian and we Canadians are by and large a very forgiving people. If Keys chose to own up to this, we’d surely wrap her in a hockey sweater, take her to Tim’s, and have a heart-to-heart over the finest glazed donuts this country has to offer. Instead, we are left with a real who done it.

From my perspective, I think Keys is strategically stretching the truth here. Girl, your pants are on fire.