Staffer turns against Sandilands as brands go to air despite pulling ads
Signs of internal views at Southern Cross Austereo about Today Network presenter Kyle Sandilands have emerged, with national account manager Julie Anne Dacumos taking to Twitter to describe Sandilands as “a douche”.
Her comments came after a testing 48 hours for the network following Sandilands’ attack on a female News Limited journalist. In on air comments, he described Alison Stephenson as “a piece of shit” and made personal comments about her appearance after she reported negative tweets about his TV show. He also threatened to hunt her down.
Dacumos, based in the company’s Melbourne office, complained that staff on reception had been threatened and that security had been stepped up. She tweeted:
“Increased security, threats @reception & most key advertisers withdrawing their business. Thanks Kyle Sandilands. You’re a douche! #VileKyle”
In a further issue for the network, this morning’s show aired ads featuring some brands that have publicly announced they were pulling their business.
American Express announced on its Facebook page late last night: “Amex pulled its advertising from the Kyle and Jackie O show earlier today. We respect people. Thanks for your support.”
But the brand was today bombarded with complaints on the Facebook page from people who had heard its ads aired at least twice this morning. It told followers that it was investigating.
Meanwhile, Fantastic Furniture, which had also said it had withdrawn its ads, featured just after the 8am news.
Telstra, which also pulled its own ads, remained featured in advertising on the show this morning because it has the naming rights to the Sydney Telstra 500 V8s race which was advertised shortly before 8am.
Late last night Southern Cross Austereo boss Rhys Holleran issued “sincere apologies”.
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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I thought people weren’t listening to Kyle anymore…It’s a bit hypocritical to have a go at advertisers for advertising on the show when one is so against it. I don’t get it??
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In future news: Dacumos fired by Austereo for violating social media policy.
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Hmmm they want to fill those ad spots regardless. They should approach the most s-xist mens mags, mens weight loss products & hair restorers, gun & ammo advertisers, neo Nazis, porno publishers, p-nis extensions, pimps & purveyors of inflatable and robotic female s-x companions to advertise with them. Snake oil venders too.
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She’ll probably get sacked now for being honest.
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I have to hand it to julie… she’s done something that SCA CEO Rhys holleran hasn’t been able to do…
I hope there is no company backlash against her 🙂
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Seems that tweet is gone now…
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To be honest, if brands / advertisers are pulling out or being reallocated somewhere else, the people who would be affected the most would be the sales / advertising staff who have to fill a revenue target which would have a nice big gap in it. Rhys doesn’t care about this fact since he would probably see it as an opportunity to do a retrenchment of staff cause the area has been underperforming.
Great management if they decide to sack staff who speak their mind about the entire issue – whereas kyle / jackie o is unaffected or possibly be suspended with pay when then instigated the entire thing.
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Paul : it’s about our larger society. 2 day fm has a young audience. So a lot of youth and -ahem- not so young immature people are having their attitudes shaped by this station. Getting advertisers to influence the station helps to shape messages re what’s deemed acceptable in our culture.
If you have any doubts – pop culture does influence society. In Latin America a TV station soap opera was deliberately used to moderate chauvinistic attitudes eg so condoms became more acceptable to slow the spread of disease
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If brands are so worried about rub-off from shock jocks offensive comments aimed at women, why has 2GB got so many clients? Shouldn’t Ray Hadley and his fellow Gillard bashers be subject to a boycott? Or does the fact their rampant negativity attracts listeners suddenly make brands less moral.
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Julie Anne Dacumos well done and if you end up with out a job because if this it would be sad. You should be held up in high regard.
It’s a tough enough ad market as is without the “assistance” of so called “talent” to make your job tougher than it has to be!
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My thoughts are that they will give her a warning and look at ways to oust her from the company based on her sales performance when public hysteria has died down. they can’t sack her now… they would be seriously facing public issues if they sacked her and not Kyle…
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Twitter now says “This user does not exist.”
Do you think Kyle hunted her down?
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Isn’t calling him a douche a personal, public attack? Isn’t that criticising him for doing something she has also just done?
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Why condemn Kyle Sandilands? Why not just switch off?
True, we could stick our heads in the sand and pretend that it doesn’t matter to us because we don’t have to listen to him but by his attitude to women this guy is showing a side of Australian society that people have fought against for 100 years!! Why should *anyone* be allowed to attack anyone’s opinions by reference to their physical appearance… or more importantly their sex??
If Sandilands had an issue with the way this woman reported his TV program, or if the facts were untrue or if he had *anything* factual to retaliate with then he was at liberty to tear her opinion to shreds. Instead he decided that the response to her report was to tell her her breasts were small, her hairstyle out of date and that she was… in his words… a fat slag.
What sort of society are we encouraging if we allow this sort of behaviour to go unchallenged??
http://www.change.org/petition.....o-vilekyle
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Her facebook is down too… poor thing must’ve had the wrath of SCA come down on her
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I hate to say it, but I do hope they are so damned stupid to let her go instead of Kyle (and yes, someone should give her a better job immediately). It would just serve to show that they aren’t interested in fair policies where staff are concerned, as was evidenced by the sustained foul treatment of newsreader Geoff Fields, while that milquetoast Jackie just giggled on.
I cannot bring myself to call her by her chosen moniker. It brings down the memory of a truly dignified woman.
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If we’re looking at moral dilemmas here, why don’t we ask why some of these advertisers were sponsoring this show anyways.
I think its a bit two-faced for American Express to say they’re pulling advertising because “they respect people” when they were sponsoring a show that is largely aimed at the mid to late teen market. Thought there was a salary limit to getting an AMEX card or are they now being peddled to anyone who is capable of signing their own name?
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Sad that she will loose her job and Kyle won’t.
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…um don’t you guys realise that Dacumos’ tweet was at the behest of their PR team….it’s just a bit of spin….
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Here is what’s likely to be the Austereo plan:
Ride out the last week of survey 8 (no matter what the cost). Kyle & Jackie then go away on 8 weeks leave. When they return next year all has been forgotten, the advertisers are rebooked and everyone gets on with business as usual.
Am I being too cynical?
Seriously, if the network do keep the show on air it only proves they’ve sold their soul to the devil. What does it say about the 2DAY brand? Morality in business… what’s that!
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As if Austereo give a stuff about anything morally right.
They hired Matty Johns in brekky in Sydney and they have just hired Wayne Carey to the footy line up next year in Melbourne.
They continue to support Kyle Sandilands. I dont know if its Kyle that hates women it might be in the culture. Austereo has always been a boys club and they treat the public like idiots.
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Can I just ask something – did Sandilands actually say the word ‘shit’? If so, why wasn’t it bleeped out?
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@mediatonka: probably – but money also talks. You can bet the ad rates for Fantastic Furniture just dropped dramatically. You can also bet that Sandilands won’t be able to live through this one – he only lived through that highly disgusting and disgraceful episode with the girl due to a suspension. This time, a suspension shouldn’t be enough.
Of course, Jackie O is complicit… neither of them will be a loss to public discourse.
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So…
Ms Dacumos calls Kyle a douche and looses her job (possibly?).
Kyle calls a woman that gave an honest review of his show (going by the ratings) a piece of shit and (probably) gets a pay rise!
What a great country we live in these days! I think most of corporate Australia is living in some bizzaro Oz…
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I’d say more nasty things about Kyle, however me and a colleague were stopped on more than one occasion and accosted in the street for… being mistaken for Kyle and Jackie.
I blame the big shades and the beard. Plus apparently I have the aura of a total wanker.
As for saying “shit”, well they say “fuck” on TripleJ quite a lot, so let’s not get on our high horses quite yet. Indeed Plan B dropped the “Cuntbomb” (as I once heard it described – er, you mean the c bomb?) and ne’er a word was said.
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My thoughts exactly Sven. Kyle has never presented as the kind of person who would tolerate such an attack. A lowly staffer — and thats what an account manager would be compared to Kyle — would never get away with calling Kyle a douchebag. But if the audience is mostly 17-24 year olds — naive & unsophisticated — this tactic will work and congrats to the media spinner who dreamed it up. I wouldn’t be surprised if the the major account holders hadn’t called a crisis meeting to discuss how to get their ads back onto the Kyle & sidekick show. Cant wait to see the next installment of the exploits of the Sassy Julie Ann Ducamos and the luckless but brave receptionists, enuring the venomous attacks from bullies for merely doing their nothing jobs..um, wait…reminds me of something…
How stupid do they think the audience is…Kyle goes beserk over someone objectively reporting his tv appearance that bombed, but someone in his stable feels confident enough to call him a douchebag? Yeah right.
Pressure needs to be maintained on the advertisers. Ignore Kyle — loud mouth pigs with dubious talent and a devoted enabler who mumbles ‘yeah’ are a dime a dozen, be honest we all know people like this — go after the money.
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I’d say its best not to speculate about what will or wont happen to either Kyle or Julie. It’s pointless.
The world needs villains like Kyle, otherwise we might be paying attention to actual news that might effect our own lives such as how the Government plans process asylum seekers, the plan to return the federal budget into the black by cost cutting in other areas or the reforms that may or may-not allow gay marriage.
It’s Kyle Sandilands. You know what he’s like if you don’t like him, don’t listen. And if you think that Kyle has a greater effect on the behaviour of your teenage children than what you have taught them throughout their formative years, then maybe you have bigger problems.
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@Rob #12: it’s not the same at all. “douche” is far tamer by public perceptions of standards for decency. She didn’t attack his titties, or directly threaten him with physical harm. If Kyle had stopped at “douche” we wouldn’t be here now.
@Michelle #15: I doubt this would occur. I certainly would have serious doubts about hiring someone who publicly commented on their previous employer when they were going through a tough time (right or wrong). Whatever happened to a good pseudonym?
I don’t reckon it was a PR exercise. The thought had occurred to me initially, but I doubt the tweet would have been retracted were this the case.
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@Jo..have u thought of having your own show..no really, have you? Because then you could broadcast to the families of those children who didnt make it home from school because of bullying. I cant see it being any relief or comfort for those who tended to their childs formative years, only to have the child abused, humiliated and in extreme cases die because someone’s else child lives in a society that nurtures bullying. And shutting down discussion on other issues with snide comments and a failed attempt at superiority demonstrates why debate on any issue is problematic: people dont engage, they attack, like you did. How helpful is your approach to discussion on contentious issues like refugees, debt and gay marriage? Not very, is my advice. But I know you are far too busy to return to this page and read my comments…
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If that poor girl has been given the sack, I am dumping my SXL shares. What a joke.
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