Fri May 8 2009Whitsundays Online
A video showing a woman apparently getting a tattoo expressing her love of the Great Barrier Reef in a bid to win 'The Best Job in the World' on Hamilton Island was actually created by the tourism department advertising the job, the agency has admitted.
Thousands of people from across the globe had submitted video applications to the tourism department of Australia's Queensland state for what was billed as the "Best Job in the World" - a $150,000 contract to relax on Hamilton Island in the Great Barrier Reef for six months while writing a blog to promote the island.
Among the most popular video entries was footage of an Australian woman walking into a tattoo parlor and walking out with an apparent tattoo on her arm that read, "I (red heart) islands of the Great Barrier Reef."
But Tourism Queensland's CEO Anthony Hayes acknowledged the video and another showing a woman singing a song, were both the work of a Brisbane advertising agency (Cummins Nitro) that created the job campaign, and admits it was a mistake.
"The videos were intended to serve as guides for prospective applicants and have now been removed", Hayes said. "We messed up," Hayes said. "We should have had the word 'sample"' on the videos
Andrew Fraser* says he is not aware of the video in question, but believes using a bogus entry was not appropriate. "I'd be happy to get some information about that particular issue and comment further but if that is the case then certainly I think that that is inappropriate," he said.
The video was removed from YouTube when this story broke.
*Andrew Fraser was reappointed as Treasurer and given additional responsibilities as Queensland Minister for Employment and Economic Development following the re-election of the Bligh Government in March 2009.
“Tegan” tells her side of the fake reef video furore
By mumbrella
The woman at the centre of the Tourism Queensland fake video furore says she was told to act like a would-be Big Brother applicant. According to Rhiannon Craig, she had only been working at the Brisbane-based office of Cummins Nitro for a matter of days when they asked her to appear in a video. It was to promote entries into the “best job in the world” campaign offering someone the chance to be caretaker of the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef. She said: “They wanted to have a couple of example application videos for when the site went live, to try and set the standard of applications.
Writing on her own blog, which has since been taken down, she goes on: “It got suggested that I should pretend to get a tattoo showing my dedication for the islands. They submitted my video as a test and used a fake name for the application.”“I thought it would be so obvious that it was fake, but I guess some people still fell for it including the lazy journalists who had nothing better to write about.”
This is an edited version of the story. The mainstream media picked up the story from Tim Burrowes' Mumbrella website, and it can be read in full here.
Related articles :
The story about to unfold The Age
The fake video exposed ABC News 9 News NZ Herald Reef Job UK Daily Express News TinVirgin Media UK Telegraph Sydney Morning Herald Tailored Web Euro Newspapers UK Daily Express The Mercury Channel 4 UK USA Journal Gazette Singapore Straits Times WA Today
Best job in the world? Not if you're vision-impaired
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