A marketing firm claiming to work for the Labor Party is offering to pay TikTok users to post anti-Scott Morrison sponsored content.
Crikey has obtained an email and campaign brief from Vocal Media, a small US-based based influencer marketing agency that has worked with other left-leaning political and non-for-profit organisations.
The email was sent to a TikTok user — this author — with the subject line “Paid TikTok Opportunity: Australian Labor Party”. The email offers $300 to make and post a TikTok video “based on the overarching theme of ‘Scott Morrison is too slow and always late’.”
A linked document titled “Australian Labor x VOCAL Creative Brief” lays out the goals for the creator: “This campaign aims to help shift the political discourse on TikTok […] This goes to his essential character as someone who isn’t quick to care, and instead waits until it gets really bad to do his job.”
According to the brief, a participating user will pitch a video in their normal style about the campaign theme.
“Get creative — please avoid standard speaking to camera videos unless it is aligned with your normal content strategy. Feel free to jump on trending sounds or filters,” it says.
Once they share a proof of concept, the agency will approve it and ask for a draft. Once that’s approved, Vocal Media will tell them when to post and pay them.
Nowhere does the brief discuss making a political authorisation or disclosing that this content is sponsored. Failure to authorise political content is a breach of election laws and can result in a penalty for up to $26,640 for an individual according to the Australian Electoral Commission.
Vocal Media did not respond to Crikey questions on the record. Neither did federal or state Labor parties.
Videos criticising or satirising the prime minister have racked up tens of millions of views on hashtags like #scomo and #scottmorrison. That includes content from the Australian Labor Party’s official TikTok account, which has 47,700 followers.
In the lead-up to last year’s US election, social media influencers on platforms like TikTok and Instagram were paid to produce political content. While the federal government has paid influencers to produce sponsored content in the past, this is the first reported time that an Australian political party has reportedly offered to pay influencers to produce political material.
saw an ad from the ACTU on teh socials with the definition of “pulling a Scomo” – something like, “to disappear when things get difficult” – e.g. i can’t work this weekend, i’m pulling a scomo
gold
i hope it takes off
So Labor finally catching on to Topham and Guerin digital marketing techniques…
How convincing is the evidence that the ALP is involved in this, officially or otherwise? As others have already pointed out, the spelling mistake for the party’s name is odd.
And how’s that ‘overarching theme’? ‘Scott Morrison is too slow and always late’? Sounds like a Bill Shorten zinger. Much better would have been ‘Scott Morrison: always a day late and a dollar short.’ Now that I’d pay for.
Agreed. Odd that a US based company, supposedly working for the ALP would use the “correct” (ie non US) spelling for labour when the ALP has always used the US spelling, due, I am told, to former US citizens being involved in the formation of the ALP
That would be King (sic!) O’Malley, who was also a dubh scion of the Olde Soude.
It’s curious that the message refers to the ALP as the Australian Labour Party. It was Labor in Whitlam’s time (when Albo and Bill Shorten wore short pants). So, who could have written it? Unlikely an American. Unlikely a tech savvy, net-connected millennial. An ageing private school old boy, who was taught the Queen’s English, and knows that “labour” is how the word is spelled?
Could be a pom. That’s how their version spells it. We Americanized ours back before it was cool.
Not so much amerikanized due to King O’Malley as due to the progressive Shavian movement to rationalise English orthography – ie GBS maintained that ‘fish’ should be written, logically, as ghoti.
A spellchecker might have worked its magic.
Spellchecking normally uses Yankspeak so it should have come out as Labor actually. Suspect the LNP Department of Dirty Tricks at work.
It’s true US English is the default on most devices using English but switching to another English is not beyond the capacity of most users. Any respectable Aussie or UK English spellchecker would prefer ‘labour’; which is obviously the scenario if the spelling in question was the product of a spellchecker interfering with someone who typed ‘labor’ originally.
If you are right about theLNP being involved how do you explain the use of ‘labour’ in the text? The LNP, being well involved in Aussie politics, would be aware of the correct spelling, so do you imagine they deliberately got it wrong, or do you actually subscribe to the spellchecker theory after all?
The ALP has been the Labor Party since 1912.. well before Albo and Bill Shorten were even alive.
i hope that this is the first sign that the opposition is not going to let the LNP be the only using all the latest toys and gimmicks.
I’ve been crying out for a Lincoln Project-style attack campaign crucifying Morrison and his mates for ages, i reckon it’d be a cinch to write a dozen laser-targeted beauties and carpet bomb him back to whence he came.
should be “only one using” not “only using”
Wot’s all this then, eh? The working class thinking it can use social media to influence elections?
We all know that’s the prerogative of coal magnates.