Twenty-three years to the day that Enron filed for bankruptcy after committing one of the largest accounting frauds in corporate history, the company announced on X that it had returned. Maybe.
Kenneth Lay’s ghost, is that you? Probably not. The all-stock-art inspiration video that “Enron” put out, which includes a rocket in flight and a caterpillar in chrysalis, is so generic as to be unbelievable — the first hint that maybe this could be one big joke. More hints are evident on the new Enron’s website. Take its “Our Values” section, which turns Enron into an acronym for “Energy, Nurture, Repentant, Opportunity, Nice.” A press release is filled with more pablum and mentions “decentralized technology,” so a (real) crypto scheme or new token launch could be coming soon.
But a look into the ownership of Enron’s iconic logo suggests that this could be more farce than money grab. Patent records from May — the same month the new Enron launched its page on X — show that the company’s E-logo is owned by one of the 20-somethings behind the performance-art stunt known as Birds Aren’t Real. The conceit (its title pretty much explains it) was created in 2017 by Peter McIndoe, a college dropout who committed to the bit so hard that he once appeared on Fox News explaining why he thought birds were part of a government conspiracy to surveil Americans. (Hosting that segment: Pete Hegseth, the embattled nominee for Defense secretary.) McIndoe came forward in 2021 to admit that Birds Aren’t Real is a joke to spotlight the absurdity of conspiracies and online movements.
Since then, McIndoe has announced a left-leaning podcast network to rival the conservative man-o-sphere that was much discussed during the 2024 election. To do so, he has teamed up with an influencer and producer who invented the popular online show Boy Room, in which a female host reviews the disgusting rooms of Gen-Z and millennial urbanite male slackers. “The right has a very strong engine ecosystem,” McIndoe told Slate. “The left doesn’t have anything comparable.” (It appears he was ahead of the current Rogan-for-libs strategizing that has become commonplace in Democratic circles following Donald Trump’s win.)
McIndoe and his Birds Aren’t Real partner, Connor Gaydos, did not respond to a request for comment, while the PR firm retained by the new Enron said via email that the company did not have any additional comments beyond its press release. But a clock on the Enron website promises more updates in seven days. Whatever is coming — energy trading, a scammy LayCoin — we at least know that the Birds Aren’t Real guys have not lost their ability to capture online attention. And that Enron won’t be named the “most innovative company” by Fortune ever again.
