Potholes in Panama City are Tweeting Complaints to the Local Government

Tired of trying to get the attention of your city government? Why not let the thing you planned to complain about do the work for you?

Ad agency P4 Ogilvy & Mather has teamed with local Panama City news channel Telemetro to do just that. The group has placed sensors inside a number of the potholes plaguing city roads. Whenever a car drives over one, the pothole sends a tweet to the city's Department of Public Works.

The account, El Hueco Twitero (The Tweeting Hole), delivers, in Spanish, silly messages from the anthropomorphic pits—one recent tweet from El Hueco complained of a headache from listening to cars bump over it all day. (El Hueco Twitero is also tracking the locations of complaints to map the streets most in need of attention.) The missives may be goofy, but in the two weeks the account has existed, they’ve had a real impact. (No penis drawings necessary.)

“I am sure that response has not been 100 percent, but it is evident, and serious cases have been attended in less than 24 hours,” P4 Ogilvy & Mather's vice president of strategic planning, Pinky Mon, tells Fast Company.

For more on The Tweeting Hole, check out the video above, and click on over to @Elhuecotwitero.

[h/t Fast Company]