GPY&R staff become the story after newspaper links online comments to Skype sex scandal
Tiphereth Gloria
Zac Martin
Ad agency GPY&R is today facing a PR crisis after News Ltd papers scrutinised the online behaviour of members of its social media team and linked it to the company’s review of the Defence Force Skype scandal.
GPY&R – one of the agencies on the Defence Force roster – was selected to carry out a review of the organisation’s social media policy following the scandal of a recruit secretly filming himself having sex with a fellow trainee and airing it to colleagues via Skype.
But this morning the Adelaide Advertiser has linked the scandal to staffers Tiphereth Gloria and Zac Martin via comments they have made on the past on Twitter and on their own blogs.
At the time of writing, the news story – described as a “sex controversy” was also the lead item on news.com.au.
The story is the most powerful Australian examples yet of agency staff’s personal online behaviour being linked to their professional lives. The article also focuses on GPY&R’s own Facebook page.
The News Ltd story reports:
“George Patterson Y&R’s Facebook page features images from a drunken staff party and provides links to the Facebook and Twitter accounts of staff, including social media manager Tiphereth Gloria who is part of the Defence review team.
“Ms Gloria’s Tumblr account features images of women in compromising situations, pornographic photos and other material such as:
“A GUIDE to acceptable stalking.
“A GUIDE to making one’s own sex toys.
“SLOGANS such as “put a condom on your ear and f..k what you heard” and “drunk texting is the new foreplay”.
“A LEWD picture of two elephants.
“DYES for pubic hair “assuming you have any”.
“Another digital strategist at the agency, Zac Martin’s Twitter account includes such gems as “I called them a bunch of c…s last week but decided to delete the tweet”, “Where can I buy a Kate Middleton blow-up doll?”
The article then links GPY&R boss Russel Howcroft – CEO of Y&R Brands – to the saga, by reporting that he is a member of the Facebook group “Pippa Middleton ass appreciation society”. The group has more than 200,000 members and went viral immediately after the Royal Wedding.
Both Gloria and Martin are well known in the Twittersphere.
Gloria is a founding member of Social media Club Sydney. She was appointed to lead GPY&R’s social media efforts just over a year ago.
Zac Martin is a more junior member of the digital strategy and insights team at GPY&R. He writes the Pigs Don’t Fly blog.
Update: A statement from GPY&R said: “As far as we have been able to ascertain none of the content of twitter messages or blog entries made by staff in their own time and in their capacities as private citizens breaches any law.
“We do not believe that this material is in any way relevant to an assessment of the nature or quality of the professional services that GPY&R provides. We have a social and digital media policy which staff are expected to observe. The company has the utmost confidence in the professional competence of its staff at work. The lawful expression of personal views by staff outside of work is not a matter of legitimate interest to the company or, indeed, the broader community.”
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
Linkedin
If it’s all personal then why are there links on the company FB page?
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Stupid mainstream journos
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pretty sure the part that says “The views expressed herein are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer” absolves someones personal blog. News Ltd trying to make a story out of nothing.
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also it’s “Pigs Don’t Fly”
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Shows how young this whole social media thing is. “Do as I say not as I do.”
Pretty embarrassing really even if it is a beat up.
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This kind of thing would never have happened in my day.
Anyone for a drink?
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lol…social media is great isn’t it?
TV is dead social media is the best!
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My old Mum once said to me ” Never , ever write down anything you don’t want everybody to read”
But then again she also said ” eat your sprouts, they’re only baby cabbages”
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It’s not an issue of ‘breaching any law’
The fact is, this organization should have taken a look at themselves before attempting to provide advice to the army.
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WOW – mmmm fail blog?
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I suggest letting news what you think about this article here http://bit.ly/lnjmKa
Quite honestly it just shows you how out of touch main stream media has become
what a complete utter load of crap and thats being polite!
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Advertising should be an industry where, when we check your FB, Tumblr and other pages and *don’t* find sex, drugs and rock’n’roll, then you *won’t* get hired.
Amen to the folks at GPY&R for sticking up for their staff and for what precious little is left of our beloved industry.
Story about nothing… next.
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GPYR has failed in vetting and managing their resources, failed in their Social Media strategy, and failed the client in a big way. Triple Fail.
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Agree with the first comment > if your linking work with personal, you can’t just have a short disclaimer then post porn.
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‘drunken staff party’? …..you’ve got to be kidding!
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I thought Wunderman won that account?
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I agree with Woops. This client needed careful, considered, professional social media management, not some cowgirl who thinks any sort of disclaimer makes her immune from scrutiny.
The social media types on here will argue till they’re blue in the face for freedom on their personal accounts, but for a professional it’s just not reality.
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Warning: Anything you write on the web is likely to be used out of context by a tabloid hack desperate for “controversy”.
For some one who has presumably seen horrific stuff in his time as a war correspondent, Ian McPhedran seems easily shocked. I mean, sex toys!!! And people saying the word f***!!! These decadent ad people will only corrupt our fine young soldiers, mark my words.
Now if you want to critique the govt tendering process (or lack of it), that’s another matter…
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The idea that their personal sites were found on or linked to from the gpy&r site is a lie. Don’t believe everything u read. The pics were harmless too – eg the ‘guide’ to stalking is a cartoon. A meme. Like the rest of the images. Not only harmless but not created by them. Something a dinosaur digitard journo (Ian Mchpredan) wouldn’t have the vaguest about. This is bad journalism for muckraking the ADF – open your eyes, people.
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What a storm in a tea cup, or in this case, a d cup
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Never let facts or details get in the way of a good story. More news limited garbage while real stories get missed. No wonder the industry is dead.
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i hope News.com.au gets roasted for this on Media Watch.
they deserve it.
the could even be sued for libel.
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Stop blaming the story, face it, these idiots at y&r plainly don’t get it.
The public have every right to question their skills and judgement in helping the adf.
Calling gillard a lesbian when one of your largest clients is the government. Real smart and mature.
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The fact that ADF have asked GPY&R to help them in an area that the agency knows nothing about is concerning. Of course an advertising agency will put their hand up and claim they are experts – they all do.
I bet if I asked GPY&R if they made candlesticks ( and there was a quid in it ) they would tell me they are experts in the candlestick business.
The client needs to get off his lazy backside and find someone who does know about social media
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What porn?
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1:38pm
It’s not about the public’s right to question – of course they do. But they also have a right to know the truth, and not be lied to in a paper they trust with a number of libellous claims. And the individuals concerned have a right to defend slanderous lies made at the expense of their own reputations.
Just as you do, if someone publicly calls you something unfair, like – oh I don’t know…
YOU’RE A TOTAL DICK.
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re porn: there isn’t any. fashion shoots involving partial nudity as seen on Foxtel Fashion Channel and in any magazine. once again, lies.
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People being “drunk” and using lewd language… Obviously thisjournalist has never taken public transport!
The actual issue the media should be focusing on is the dismal state of our defense force and the lack of justice issued to the female in the original skype story. The perpetrator of the sex skype filming has been allowed to re-join the defense force and is restricted to staying 5 meters away from the victim. The victim is now considering leaving her post. Get your priorities right you sad excuse for a journalist!
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It’s not a beat up. It matters. And those of you saying it’s a beat up haven’t thought it through!
GPY&R is falling back on the statement ‘The lawful expression of personal views by staff outside of work is not a matter of legitimate interest to the company or, indeed, the broader community’.
Would it would be reasonable to assume these ‘experts’ will feel this is an appropriate position for ADF to take too? If they do they will be endorsing the previous behaviour ADF is specifically concerned about!
Tip and Zac’s actions are very relevant in this case. You have to Walk the Walk, not just espouse theory. While Tip and Zac may know Social Media it’s apparent they don’t understand business. While Russell may know business it’s apparent he doesn’t understand Social Media. And it appears ADF doesn’t understand either.
So now we have a Social Media policy for the ADF being led by people whose very actions contradict the policies they should be recommending.
The question that remains, “If the ADF had done due diligence and noted this behaviour in the first place would they have appointed GPY&R?”
Failings on all sides and this immature handling of Social Media by agencies that know just enough to be dangerous is pissing me off. Leave it to the experts!
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@ Peter Hawkins
I reckon they should give Peter Hawkins a call, what do you reckon?
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I bet they are in lockdown at Patts. I also bet that every other agency is scrambling to get their “social media people” to take down the photo’s of last years Christmas party. Just because its a beat up, doesn’t mean it isn’t cutting deep.
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A journalist complaining about drunken staff parties is just priceless. I’m betting there are some nervous News Limited employees rapidly deleting some of their social media posts as we speak…
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11:02
your argument is based entirely on tip & zac’s ‘walk’ equating to the ADF’s.
are you saying they had a video of people having sex on their tumblrs?
wow, you really are naive. this is muckraking based on innocent mag shoots that are slightly revealing and in no way comparable – and in no way ‘porn’.
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This is no beat-up. We all know what we say on social media can have an impact on how the public perceives our employer and the work we perform. Ricki (above) nails it. Unless Defence’s experts can demonstrate best practice in social media, they should hand the task over to an agency that walks rather than just talks. Respect to Tip through all this too.
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Adam (post 31), the journalists are not putting themselves forward as paragons of virtue. They are doing their jobs exceedingly well – shining a light on the people charged with an incredibly important task.
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quick question: if these images/posts are so outrageous, why weren’t they printed – even with ‘lewd’ things blacked out?
smells like out-of-context rot to me.
all i saw on Channel 10 was a book that’s publicly available on Amazon.
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libel if the shots prove not to be porn – which i imagine is the case
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Sorry Cam but I don’t think that’s true.
By trolling through GPY&R staff member’s social media entries and picking out the juicy bits for their readers to find offensive, they are indeed putting themselves forward as a “paragon of virtue”. It is an open invitation to have your own actions scrutinised and judged, and when an organisation such as News Limited does it (on such a regular, almost monotonous frequency), it’s suggesting that all of their staff member’s, not just journos, are above reproach.
I’m not too sure that’s the case.
No doubt the journos are doing their job “exceedingly well” – I’m sure quite a few received a pat on the forehead from management this morning.
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One minute everyone wants you to be a bloody polymath, the next they’re berating you for having more than one dimension. Wall your gardens kids. A nickname friends only profile/feed and a ‘work-face’….the hard part is deciding which work friends to let in.
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In the lead up to the state election, I tweeted from my personal Twitter “I wonder if Kristina Keneally’s team jokes about them being referred to as the KK Klan.” As a result, I was hauled in to the Director’s office and nearly lost my job. It’s great that GPY&R have stood up for their staff, but people need to recognise the impact of what they say online and learn from it. I certainly did…
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Hang on… If the media has distorted the truth on this story, what else are they lying to us about?!?!?!?!?!?!?
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OK, here’s a thought: There are no clear lines around self-disclosure on the internet*. Posting a picture of you and your mates desecrating a grave while wearing full Nazi regalia on Facebook is almost certainly “a bad idea” (in so many respects**) but some aspect of your life will probably offend someone somewhere and can be made to look bad by the determinedly malicious.
Here’s another thought: Why should only the most anodyne and sinless give advice about online self presentation***? Presumably someone who has experienced the rough and tumble of the online world (and made mistakes along the way) can actually talk from experience rather than theory? Or do we prefer our sex education from catholic priests?
I enjoy beating up ad agencies as much as anyone (hell, more so, probably) but this particular storm in a tea cup will probably lead to more self-censorship on the part of people in the web world and thus make the internet more a dullerer place. Boo!
BTW I wouldn’t bother posting any critical comments (however mild) on the Adelaide Advertiser article as News Ltd don’t seem to be publishing them.
*Now I realise that if you are a social media guru, you probably have your own piece of “thought leadership” that says otherwise but who really cares, eh? Yes, you should have got this piece of work (as you should get all social media work). But you didn’t. But feel free to pile on your competitors / enemies instead. How useless they are! How much better you would have been! *sigh*
**We all learn from our mistakes – and I thought Jurgen was mate…
***Big up the Erving Goffman massive!!!
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it’s true – i posted on the Adelaide Advertiser too – and they never published it.
much like the so-called offensive pics?
probably because in context they aren’t offensive at all.
who are the people with something to hide here?
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Matt you’ve summed it all up here. All the neg attacks on Tip are pure professional jealousy. Taking the side of a digitarded old school mainstream journo with his Draconian bias on new & social media over someone within your own camp – especially when everyone has had the odd rude meme on a blog – is just petty.
Shame on you, people. And well said, Matt.
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Ummm… Isn’t this the same agency News Ltd very recently appointed to The Australian account and (I think still) holds the news.com.au account?
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Is Russell still a member of the Tiphereth Appreciation Society after this?
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@zacmartin is hilarious. This story is on par with an episode of Today Tonight. maybe your journos should bite stories from CNNNN.
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The issue here is not what individuals publish on their personal social media pages but what their vacuous, sexist utterances say about the team at Y&R conducting the Defence review.
This is a big money review and should be led by experienced professionals not a cabal of immature wannabe digital gurus.
Then again they work for a big lazy agency. You get what you pay for.
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it was not LEWD we were just mucking around not happy Mowgoli
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Russell is a victim too; can’t you read the papers? I’m sure he’s standing beside her, fighting off the bullshit as a team.
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So the Hon Stephen Smith MP, Minister for Defence says that he supports the choice of GPY&R as the ADF’s social media gurus…and this guy buys the tanks and planes and guns and stuff….. WOW
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A slow news day for the journos?
Some good investigative journalling here – let me guess… you Googled it?
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@joanne Painter
someone with your amount of self-touted experience in journalism should know not to believe everything you read.
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If this story was just about two sh*t-kicking morons at the agency, it would be a beat-up, but the fact is these people are supposed to be social ‘experts’… they should’ve foreseen these issues and Howcroft should know better – perve… (but that part is funny).
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I can just see it now … Bolt blaming those bloody social-ists.
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the scandal here is that the press fabricated a scandal to throw petrol on a real one.
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I, for one, am also a huge fan of Pippa Middleton’s ass, and I have no problem letting my clients know that.
(Please don’t let my clients know that)
Simon
http://www.TwoCentsGroup.com.au
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The risk management question for the agency in advance is” What might it look like if it gets reported in the paper by a News Ltd journo looking for a scoop, and how might that affect our business?” Not the question they are addressing which is “Is there a way we can justify what has happened now that the sh*t has hit the fan?” It’s called the “Headline Test” and it’s been around for yonks. It’s a business. Who cares about the niceties?
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BREAKING NEWS:
Ad Agency Staff Party Involves Drinking
Personal Blog Features Humorous Posts
Very Little Happening In Adelaide
(oh, and ADFA still has ingrained culture of sexism)
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Maybe you guy’s should check out http://www.praesidium.com.au as this educates users from making these errors……..Good Luck!
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News should really change their name to something that more closely resembles their tabloid, gossip styled, much-racking. Their approach is just laughable, but then again should we be surprising about anything News Ltd do:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N.....ing_affair
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The whole article just reeks of bad blood between News and GPY&R. It’s just an attack with no real rhyme or reason.
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nice self-promo John Dryden
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55…57…58… at last, some sense!
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martin, this assumes the journo was representing the facts truthfully; a naive assumption in today’s unethical media landcape.
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The bottom line is that what you do in public (regardless of whether you think it should be kept separate from your business life) helps to form people’s perception of you and the organisation you work for. This information will be used to judge, hire, fire, ridicule, etc.) you and your business whether you think it’s fair or not.
If you can’t handle it, don’t publish it.
There will be a lot more of these types of stories until people realise that they need to carefully manage their brand and reputation.
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No, the bottom line is that a newspaper should be forced to publish the images it paints as offensive/pornographic alongside it’s allegations.
Over to Media Watch!!!!!
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Yep, what Tom said. Fair shmair
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what a load of bollocks, but then it’s generated 67 responses prior to mine – is there so little real news to talk about…..FGS !!!!!!!!!
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Unfair smear actually
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bollocks is right – Ian mcphredan’s bollocks in frying pan
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pure media spin – have you guys anything better to write about …
mumbrella FAIL’d today for me
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true that. campaign brief thought it was too trivial to run and clearly a fabricated passing beat-up. come on guys.
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heh Simon, I would also like to cast my hat in the ring as a supporter of Pippa Middleton’s ass.
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i like lewd elephants
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This article and surrounding controversy has given me many good ideas. I am definitely joining the Pippa Middleton Ass Appreciation page, upping my quota of women in compromising positions and getting into drunk texting as foreplay.
Please don’t tell me Tiphereth is behaving innapropriately in her own space unless you actually live in George Orwell’s 1984.
That’s all.
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Which of these items is illegal?
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It’s think it’s fair to say that Pippa’s ass is pretty good! And I’m a chick.
So what if Russel joined the group? So did over 4000 people… plus there are multiple other groups appreciating her ass all over the world.
Was going to join myself in support of Russel, but can’t find the page anymore. Did they tear it down?
I’m a member of the ‘Melbourne is better than Sydney’ group. Does this mean I can never work with a Sydney client or company?
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As i see it there are 3 major fails in this situation.
1) Personal freedom and expression through social media is all good but when you’re a professional in an area then there are greater risks. A bit more common sense and sensitivity should have been applied to the Y&R social media presence.
2) This story also highlights the fact that the Defence force must still see social media as primarily a marketing function (evident by their appointment of Y&R for the review) when really they needed help in the areas of corp comms policy, risk management, transformation, organisational design etc. Something an ad agency is not set up to address – and neither should they be expected to.
3) The naming and shaming of the individuals on the news.com.au story is a complete beat up and feels like a personal attack on Tiphereth and Martin. Accusing them of posting porn on their accounts is very serious and could damage their professional reputation.
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4) if there wasn’t any porn on the sites, it has serious implications re libel for News Ltd
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Google my name and you won’t find me, anywhere. See!
Try again.
And again.
See!
A social media (usually self titled) ‘guru’ should be able to spruik away about their client, but never be found or traced. A decent social media ‘person’ would never be so amateur.
Especially if they are working on a defense account!!!
Try again, oh go on.
See…….you can’t find me!!!!!!!
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Wow, Pedro. I’ve seen my fair share of asinine comments but yours deserves some kind of award. Are you, like, 60? I was seriously bent double over my desk laughing. The best part was the eccentric inverted commas. Oh honey, I thought I was going to regret coming into work with a hang-over but that made it totally worthwhile.
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fuck me – yes, that was pretty insane, Pedro.
a social media guru should index highly, with his/her name coming up a lot, with links to good articles and social content they’ve contributed to the community.
the fact that you don’t come up at all pretty much sums you up as a social media nobody – well done for pointing that out to the whole industry! 10 points! out of 5!
if you google ‘Tiphereth Gloria’ by contrast, you get 78 instances of good content before even a sniff of a mention of this trivial article.
now that’s power!
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Pedro of course you are there, you’re just using the wrong search term, a common mistake with the self obsessed.
Look under Fuckwit.
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hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha – BOOM!
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Empty vessels make the most noise…
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Hear that?
That’s the sound of one hand clapping yourself.
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My comment concerned professionalism. When working on a defense account it isn’t very good practice look to be linked to your personal tweets, mentioning the c word…
Good practice would be to ensure that you can’t be linked. (Unless you are willing for all to know that you tweet expletives and represent brands that don’t?). If you are then be prepared for potential fallout with your client.
I wish you well Zac.
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Tip has replied: http://www.digitaltip.com.au/i…..d-context/
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the above link doesn’t work.
http://www.digitaltip.com.au/i.....d-context/
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anyone noticed that the comments on the original article are very much one sided? http://www.digitaltip.com.au/i.....d-context/
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Dan Savage’s rant about Weiner-gate (I think) loosely applies to the poor bastards at GPY+R caught up in this “scandal”.
Listen here: http://t.co/stoZYJU
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