$1,000 money drop at Beach Blast incites social media outrage, could lead to fines

Robert Manion | Staff Writer

In the midst of UNC Wilmington’s Beach Blast, a back-to-school party held at Wrightsville Beach on Tuesday, Aug. 16 with an estimated 5,000 people in attendance, a red Robinson R44 four-person helicopter circled from the beach’s south to north end and finally positioned itself above a large crowd of students in the water just south of the Oceanic Pier.

The helicopter lowered itself to within 100 feet of the students in order for a passenger inside the helicopter promoting Likeli, a new social application and Wilmington startup, to empty out promotional fliers and $1,000 in $1 bills onto the ocean crowd.

 “Everyone stopped what they were doing,” said Jackson McJunkin, a UNCW junior who was in the water when the helicopter approached and dropped the money.

“At first, I didn’t know what it was, but I tried to get some once I realized it was money,” he said.           

He wasn’t alone. Instagram video footage shows the crowd of students flocking to the dollar bills.

Although several students came away from Beach Blast with a few extra dollars and Likeli promotional fliers, Wrightsville Beach town officials are now considering issuing citations to High Tide Helicopters, the helicopter company that provided the aircraft and pilot for the stunt, and to officials within Likeli.

Police may issue citations for littering — a $250 fine — and for flying a helicopter under 500 feet — a $100 fine — according to a recent Lumina News report.

“In a family-friendly beach environment, there could be danger,” Wrightsville Beach town manager Tim Owens told the Lumina News. “We can’t allow that kind of activity, whether it be a special event or otherwise, without going through an approval process.”

The stunt received large amounts of negative attention when a photo of the money drop posted by professional surfer Ben Bourgeois went viral after the Instagram account.

@kook_of_the_day reposted it and chastised Likeli for pouring the money and paper into the ocean. The Likeli Instagram account is currently private, which prevents the public from posting unwarranted hateful comments.

Likeli is a mobile application aimed at providing users with real-time information about social gatherings, including ages, male-to-female ratios and locations. The company has hosted a series of parties to coincide with the beginning of the new academic year at UNCW.

The incident and subsequent negative attention on social media was effective for Likeli marketing, despite its lack of planning, said junior English major Dixon Wingrove, who saw the helicopter stunt from the north side of Oceanic Pier and witnessed the event’s frenzy of attention on Instagram.

“It was not thought out well,” he said. “But it definitely worked as a promotion.”

Likeli founder and CEO George Taylor issued an apology via Facebook two days after Beach Blast and announced a Likeli-organized trash sweep of Wrightsville Beach on Aug. 21 in order to make amends on the company’s “mistake.”

“Not only did we potentially harm the wildlife and dirty the water, but we were unable to gain access for cleanup teams, leaving the responsibility of the remaining mess on event staff,” Taylor wrote. “While there is no way to go back and change our actions, we believe it is important to try to make right on our mistake.”

The Likeli Wrightsville Beach cleanup will follow that of UNCW’s chapter of the Plastic Ocean Project, Inc. and the UNCW Surfrider Club, which cleaned the beach in preparation for Beach Blast.

Still, the cleanup may shed a positive light on the company, and it is an important step for overcoming the negative attention, McJunkin said.

 “It seems that they’re pretty repentant — like they’re doing more good than anything,” McJunkin said. “Organizing the beach cleanup was pretty cool.”