Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to Outspoken. It's your dose of the
Speaker 1: hottest influencer and pop culture news twice a week. I'm
Speaker 1: Kate Torba and coming up on today's show. Ashi Biens's
Speaker 1: Fragrance brand is slammed over its offensive marketing campaign and
Speaker 1: Victoria Devine's car park call out. But first, speculation is
Speaker 1: continuing to mount over the state of Tammy Hembro and
Speaker 1: Mattzakowski's marriage. A week after unfollowing and then re following
Speaker 1: her husband on Instagram, Tammy has continued to provide clues
Speaker 1: that the pair are fighting. Yeah, So, on Wednesday, Tammy
Speaker 1: shared a car sing along to her Instagram's story, and
Speaker 1: in it, she sang along to poison song every Rose
Speaker 1: Has Its Thorn, and she sang this lyric directly to
Speaker 1: the camera. For those who aren't across this eighties track,
Speaker 1: the song is about a rock star coming home after
Speaker 1: touring and finding his girlfriend cheating on him. So the
Speaker 1: lead singer, Bret Michaels, wrote the song after he called
Speaker 1: his girlfriend and heard another man's voice in the background.
Speaker 1: So a lot of followers are speculating this is a
Speaker 1: bit of a clue as to what has gone on.
Speaker 1: Between Matt and Tammy. Is never a good sign when
Speaker 1: someone is doing a sing along in the car because normally,
Speaker 1: when you are doing passionate singalongs, it's to a breakup song. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and in this case, she wasn't even driving in the car.
Speaker 1: This was a strategic decision to set up her camera
Speaker 1: and mind directly to this song on an Instagram story.
Speaker 1: And she did put clues out like this when she
Speaker 1: was breaking up with Matt Paul. It is very telling.
Speaker 1: And things escalated further on Saturday when fans noticed that
Speaker 1: Tammy changed her name on Instagram so ahead of Tammy
Speaker 1: and Matt's wedding. Tammy confirmed that she would be officially
Speaker 1: changing her last name to Sakowski, and a lot of
Speaker 1: followers wondered if she'd actually go through with a name
Speaker 1: change on Instagram because it could be detrimental to her brand.
Speaker 1: I mean, her profile is a lot bigger than Matt Szakowski's.
Speaker 1: There have been a lot of influencers who have kept
Speaker 1: their maiden name. I mean, Laura Henshaw is a prime example.
Speaker 1: Her husband actually took on her surname, and Zakowski isn't
Speaker 1: the easiest to spell. People also just know her as
Speaker 1: Tammy Hembros. It's her brand, yeah, and if new people
Speaker 1: are trying to find her, they're going to struggle to
Speaker 1: find her on Instagram now. After the wedding, Tammy didn't
Speaker 1: actually change her handle, but in her bio she wrote
Speaker 1: missus Zakowski with an engagement ring emoji. But on Saturday morning,
Speaker 1: she removed missus Zakowski from her bio altogether and replaced
Speaker 1: it with Tammy Hembro. I was listening to Matt's podcast
Speaker 1: the other day and he was talking about how Tammy
Speaker 1: has been going through the official channels to change her surname.
Speaker 1: So I wonder how fast she is in that process,
Speaker 1: because it's an absolute nightmare to change your name officially.
Speaker 1: I went through it two years ago and it took
Speaker 1: so long to get everything changed, like your driver's life,
Speaker 1: since your bank details. It's actually on my list of
Speaker 1: things to do this week because I've got three months
Speaker 1: before my baby's born and I want to have my
Speaker 1: name changed before I give birth so we all have
Speaker 1: the same last name. Well, you better get onto it.
Speaker 1: This is making me think that there's even more to
Speaker 1: this name change on Instagram. Clearly it's a topic of
Speaker 1: discussion in their household. At the moment, it seemed like
Speaker 1: Matt was really pushing this name change and that it's
Speaker 1: important for him to have his wife have Sakowski. It
Speaker 1: didn't take long for gossip pages to pick up on
Speaker 1: this news, and there were pages like influencer updates, are
Speaker 1: you reporting on the news? And within a few hours
Speaker 1: missus Zekowski was back in the bio. It seemed like
Speaker 1: Tammy didn't like the negative attention that it was bringing her.
Speaker 1: Then changing it back made it even more obvious that
Speaker 1: it was a thing. Yeah, because then the pages could
Speaker 1: show that the change actually did happen because they have
Speaker 1: the screenshots to prove it. Otherwise you could think, oh,
Speaker 1: maybe it wasn't actually in there to begin with. Yeah,
Speaker 1: But the fact that she was like, oh shit, I
Speaker 1: better put it back in, or Matt has seen it
Speaker 1: and said you better put it back. Despite the name
Speaker 1: being back up, Tammy and Matt spent the weekend apart.
Speaker 1: So Tammy was on this sponsored stay ca at a
Speaker 1: Gold Coast hotel with her kids, sister, and also her
Speaker 1: nieces and nephews, and he was notably absent from the trip.
Speaker 1: He hasn't posted on his stories throughout the whole weekend.
Speaker 1: He's been very quiet. In fact, he hasn't been seen
Speaker 1: on Tammy's Instagram since the unfollowed last week. Hmm, it's
Speaker 1: very interesting. I'm guessing that they'll do what they normally
Speaker 1: do and put some loved up thing and they'll patch
Speaker 1: it over again. Well, it sounds like he's still in Melbourne.
Speaker 1: I don't even know if he's back on the Gold Coast,
Speaker 1: so it's not a very good sign.
Speaker 2: Kiwi Babes, the way is officially over.
Speaker 1: Ashy Brian's fragrance brand Hideaway has been slammed fro an
Speaker 1: offensive marketing campaign that used Maori slang to celebrate the
Speaker 1: brand's launch into New Zealand. The company contacted Kiwi customers
Speaker 1: to tell them they stink and should buy their perfume.
Speaker 1: So can you tell us more? It's very bizarre. So
Speaker 1: the text message read, cheer bro, you stink like rotor
Speaker 1: arua a grab some of this Mina's perfume from the
Speaker 1: cuz around the corner. Lara reckons its choice as so
Speaker 1: hook yourself up Kiora now. There was then a link
Speaker 1: to Hideaway's website to purchase the perfume. Now around an
Speaker 1: hour and twenty minutes later, the brand followed up with
Speaker 1: a text message that said, sorry if our last message
Speaker 1: came off wrong, just Kiwi banter, We've got proud Kiwis
Speaker 1: on the team, and meant no offense, all love. So
Speaker 1: clearly people were very offended by this text message. I
Speaker 1: can see why, and to put this into perspective of
Speaker 1: how tone deaf the message was. For those unfamiliar with
Speaker 1: the Rotarua, it's a city in New Zealand that's a
Speaker 1: tourist hotspot, so it's actually situated in a volcanic region
Speaker 1: and it's renowned for its geothermal activity and Maori culture.
Speaker 1: It's also known for having a distinct sulfur smell due
Speaker 1: to the area's geothermal activity, so basically, the area releases
Speaker 1: a lot of hydrogen sulfide gas, which is known to
Speaker 1: smell like rotten eggs. I get really pissed off when
Speaker 1: brands text me because I'm almost like, who is this?
Speaker 1: And then it ends up being like Domino's. Domino sends
Speaker 1: me messages on the daily and I'm like, how do
Speaker 1: they even get my number? But to receive a text
Speaker 1: message like this, there's not only annoying but it's also offensive,
Speaker 1: like what are these marketers think? And the people who
Speaker 1: received the text message said that it wasn't really clear
Speaker 1: it was even from a brand because it was trying
Speaker 1: to pass itself off as being a legitimate text message
Speaker 1: from a friend, and then it had the link at
Speaker 1: the end, so it would have been very confusing. It
Speaker 1: was clearly their way to attract attention and get people
Speaker 1: to read further into the message and click on the link.
Speaker 1: But they've totally missed the market. Yeah, and Rotarua's mayor,
Speaker 1: Tanya Tapsle is not happy, so she weighed into the matter,
Speaker 1: saying they clearly don't have a grasp on reality as
Speaker 1: Rotorua is a beautiful place with beautiful people. That's why
Speaker 1: we get up to three million visitors a year. She
Speaker 1: also said it was unbelievably unfortunate that Ashy and her
Speaker 1: team in Australia thought that this message was acceptable. She
Speaker 1: went on to say, whoever thought the marketing text you
Speaker 1: sent out to New Zealand as mocking our slang would
Speaker 1: go down well as an Australian company missed the mark
Speaker 1: big time. Now the follow up text message from Hideaway
Speaker 1: did absolutely nothing to squash the avalanche of online complaints.
Speaker 1: One person wrote what the hell did you just text me?
Speaker 1: Whilst another said I've just got the eke from your
Speaker 1: text and the dismissal text following just KeyWe banter. Another
Speaker 1: said I came across this company a few days ago
Speaker 1: and that text was the first communication I had received,
Speaker 1: So I guess the marketing team is taking notes from
Speaker 1: the how to Lose Customer's handbook. Someone else wrote wild
Speaker 1: marketing strategy offending every New Zealand woman. It's giving mean
Speaker 1: girl energy and a big nope from a former customer.
Speaker 1: There were some customers who defended Hideaway. One wrote, as
Speaker 1: a keyw girl, just ignore these hate comments. Your stuff
Speaker 1: is so nice. I just ordered two body miss and
Speaker 1: one perfume. Another said when did people get offended so easily?
Speaker 1: You can't breathe anymore without offending someone now. Hideaway are
Speaker 1: yet to put out a public apology, but their social
Speaker 1: media team responded individually to some of the comments, so
Speaker 1: on Friday they wrote to a disgruntled customer, we are
Speaker 1: truly sorry for any hurt or offense we have caused.
Speaker 1: Our attention was never to be insensitive, but we now
Speaker 1: recognize that our message came across in a way that
Speaker 1: was very inappropriate. This was written as lighthearted banter by
Speaker 1: one of our key WE team members, but upon reflection,
Speaker 1: we can see how it has been received differently. Your
Speaker 1: feelings are completely valid and we take full responsibility for
Speaker 1: our words. We're taking this as an opportunity to reflect
Speaker 1: and do better moving forward. Now. The brand tried to
Speaker 1: clear Ashy of any wrongdoing. They wrote as she did
Speaker 1: not approve this message she was away for her podcast,
Speaker 1: but by Saturday night, the post containing the comments was
Speaker 1: deleted from Hardaway social media account, and ash Bines was
Speaker 1: also ignoring the backlash on her own Instagram channel and
Speaker 1: instead was spooking the fragrances. This is what she said.
Speaker 2: By I didn't jump on yesterdays.
Speaker 3: Tell you guys that our perfume has finally launched in
Speaker 3: New Zealand, So you guys know we've had our body
Speaker 3: miss available in New Zealand.
Speaker 1: Which is that this is Vanilla's a live Yes, this
Speaker 1: is Honestly, this.
Speaker 2: Is my favorite line. It's so nice. Flack Essence was
Speaker 2: a number one seller. Now Vanilla's Light is It's the
Speaker 2: best that these.
Speaker 3: Are available for aqubbabes I will leave a swipe up
Speaker 3: link or link on the screen.
Speaker 1: I just feel like she was trying to stick her
Speaker 1: head in the sand, particularly when she kept saying ki
Speaker 1: we babes, Like you've literally just offended all these women
Speaker 1: by saying you stink and using all of this Maori slang,
Speaker 1: like you're stereotyping this whole nation. And then you're like, oh, cool,
Speaker 1: swipe up and buy my product? Is it this week
Speaker 1: to say? Oh? Because as she was recording a podcast,
Speaker 1: she had no idea about this huge marketing campaign. I
Speaker 1: think that's a bit fishy. I think she would have
Speaker 1: been well aware of the marketing tactics they were doing,
Speaker 1: particularly because they're trying to get into New Zealand. Well,
Speaker 1: it was the product's launch into New Zealand, and as
Speaker 1: she Bindes is not only the co founder of Hideaway
Speaker 1: alongside her husband Steve, but she's the creative director. So
Speaker 1: you're telling me that the creative director doesn't sign off
Speaker 1: on a campaign when you're launching a product into a
Speaker 1: new country. Her face was all over the marketing like
Speaker 1: that is bullshit? Did her husband Steve it? Well, apparently
Speaker 1: it's only more recently that as she has been more
Speaker 1: hands on with Hideaway. Before it was kind of Steve's baby,
Speaker 1: so it is a bit awkward that now she's more involved.
Speaker 1: These things are happening because now that she's gotten rid
Speaker 1: of Baseline, Hideaway is her focus alongside her podcast, and
Speaker 1: she came out and said that the podcast isn't actually
Speaker 1: making much money, but she finds it really enjoyable. I
Speaker 1: just wish she would take responsibility for this. I think
Speaker 1: it looks worse to say that you're not across your
Speaker 1: business and don't know the key marketing strategies you're implementing
Speaker 1: when you're launching into another country, and it just looks
Speaker 1: like you're trying to distance yourself from your own brand.
Speaker 1: I also thought it was a pretty poor excuse to say, oh,
Speaker 1: we actually have kei we team members, so it was
Speaker 1: okay that we wrote that ash Bindes may have been
Speaker 1: born in New Zealand and a social media manager is
Speaker 1: also a keiw but neither of them are Maori. So
Speaker 1: it seems really inappropriate to appropriate slang into that text message.
Speaker 1: And also for the text message to say you stink
Speaker 1: That is just such a bizarre argument. It's like an
Speaker 1: Australian brand saying Oh, we've got Aussie's on the team,
Speaker 1: so we can mock aboriginal slang. Sorry, that doesn't fly. No,
Speaker 1: it does not fly. I saw someone compare the approach
Speaker 1: to if a gym sound out a text message saying hey, Fatty,
Speaker 1: come and join us. I mean, it's not bad enough
Speaker 1: that they were racially stereotyping people, but why would a
Speaker 1: fragrance company try and attract clients by telling them that
Speaker 1: they stink. It's a very strange marketing tactic, because to me,
Speaker 1: perfume is about aspiration. That's why there's so many celebrities
Speaker 1: who are the face of perfumes, because you think I
Speaker 1: want to smell like this celebrity, or I really like
Speaker 1: this fruity sense, not to mask an odor. It's more
Speaker 1: to smell note. But they're really playing on insecurity. I
Speaker 1: mean I feel like that's more marketing for a deodorant brand,
Speaker 1: not a perfume brand. Yeah, exactly. And I was just thinking,
Speaker 1: how did this marketing campaign pass through so many hands
Speaker 1: without someone flagging this as an issue? Oh come on,
Speaker 1: Kate as she was recording a podcast one day, so
Speaker 1: she wasn't across this marketing campaign. There's clearly been weeks
Speaker 1: in the words yeah, I mean ironically, it seems like
Speaker 1: a lot of Hydaway's customers didn't even realize that as
Speaker 1: she was connected to the brand, and that's actually put
Speaker 1: off a lot of people.
Speaker 2: Now, what are you talking about? Your teaching me a lesson?
Speaker 1: She's on the Money podcast host Victoria Devine has landed
Speaker 1: herself in hot water with staff at a Genesis dealership
Speaker 1: after mistakenly parking in an area reserved for staff. The
Speaker 1: former financial advisor captured the hostile exchange on her Instagram
Speaker 1: story as staff set out to supposedly teach her a lesson.
Speaker 1: So pow did this all unfold? Well? On Friday morning,
Speaker 1: Victoria and her personal assistant Zara were out running some
Speaker 1: errands and from what I've pieced together, they were at
Speaker 1: a Melbourne shopping in porium which houses a Genesis showroom. Now,
Speaker 1: Victoria said she was in a rush and accidentally parked
Speaker 1: her car in a bay reserve strictly for Genesis staff,
Speaker 1: and when she returned to her car, Victoria discovered that
Speaker 1: she had been double parked by a very unhappy Genesis
Speaker 1: staff member who the park is normally reserved for. I
Speaker 1: want to point out that Victoria does not drive a Genesis.
Speaker 1: I feel like this fact is integral to the story
Speaker 1: because when I saw her stories popping up, I was
Speaker 1: really confused. I assumed that she drove a Genesis and
Speaker 1: that she was dropping a car off for a service
Speaker 1: or to meet with the team. However, she was just
Speaker 1: at the shopping center where the dealership is based, running
Speaker 1: other errands. She actually drives a Porsche, so staff would
Speaker 1: have quickly realized the car was out of place, particularly
Speaker 1: a Porsche, because I remember when Toby Pierce used to
Speaker 1: live in Adelaide, Kayla Assinas's business partner and her ex
Speaker 1: fiance baby Daddy Rachel Dilon's new husband. He used to
Speaker 1: appear on an Instagram account called shit Adelaide because he
Speaker 1: would park his very expensive sports car across like two
Speaker 1: parks or in disabled parking areas, and it was very
Speaker 1: obvious who it was because he had a custom number plate.
Speaker 1: Did it say Toby or yeah it was a biased
Speaker 1: or something along those lines. In this case, I feel
Speaker 1: like the Genesis staff members would have seen this Porsche
Speaker 1: and thought, fuck you, who's this? In titled person has
Speaker 1: just parked here, oh and thinks at their time is
Speaker 1: more important than everyone else. I'm not saying that that
Speaker 1: is the case with Victoria, but there's a general assumption
Speaker 1: when you see a very flash car as to who
Speaker 1: was driving and what their personality is like. I definitely
Speaker 1: think that is the case. I think the car being
Speaker 1: a Porsche would have particularly pissed off the staff members. Now,
Speaker 1: after discovering that her car had been boxed in, Victoria
Speaker 1: said that she went into the dealership and apologized for
Speaker 1: the mishap and asked if they could please move the car.
Speaker 1: She says a Genesis staff member claimed he didn't have
Speaker 1: the keys to move the car and refused to call
Speaker 1: his colleague who had blocked her in, as he didn't
Speaker 1: want to interrupt him with a customer. He then allegedly
Speaker 1: told Victoria that he was trying to teach her a lesson.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 1: Following this exchange, Victoria immediately took to her Instagram story
Speaker 1: slamming Genesis to her eighty five thousand followers, and she
Speaker 1: made sure to tag the luxury car brand in multiple posts. Now,
Speaker 1: the first post was a selfie in the showroom saying,
Speaker 1: who works at you, Genesis Australia. I accidentally parked in
Speaker 1: one of their car spots because it wasn't clearly marked
Speaker 1: in brackets. Yes, I should have double checked, but I
Speaker 1: was in a rush, and the guy at this dealership
Speaker 1: is low key, really rude and has parked me in
Speaker 1: and won't call the person who moved the car, and
Speaker 1: I just want to get out of their spot. So
Speaker 1: we are just standing in the showroom because he said
Speaker 1: he can't do anything now. Victoria followed it up by
Speaker 1: joking that if anyone wants to buy a Genesis, they're
Speaker 1: on full display currently, or her followers can check out
Speaker 1: the one that has double parked her in now. She
Speaker 1: clearly was not impressed, and she continued saying that the
Speaker 1: behavior was petty and reminded her audience that this was
Speaker 1: a business acting in this way, not a person. She
Speaker 1: seemed particularly miffed by the Genesis staff member, saying that
Speaker 1: they were teaching her a lesson, like.
Speaker 2: What are you talking about? Your teaching me a lesson?
Speaker 2: Are you my mother? Like I get that I'm being
Speaker 2: taught a lesson.
Speaker 3: And in the general public, you might have gone in
Speaker 3: and double parked someone for the day and be like,
Speaker 3: not my circus, not my monkeys. But this is a business,
Speaker 3: and yes, those car parks were reserved, but there were
Speaker 3: multiple empty ones as well, and reserved for what reserved
Speaker 3: for them to park?
Speaker 2: Is it reserved for customers?
Speaker 1: I was surprised how quickly Victoria tagged Genesis in her post.
Speaker 1: It was almost like, I'm really important. I've got a
Speaker 1: big social media following, so you better move this car.
Speaker 1: I'm going to cause trouble for your brand. In her defense, though,
Speaker 1: maybe she felt trapped and like that was the only
Speaker 1: solution to the problem. I mean, she's gone up and apologized,
Speaker 1: She's told them that she needs to leave. She clearly
Speaker 1: had to get back to work. She probably had meetings
Speaker 1: going on, and the person flat out refused to help her,
Speaker 1: so she thought, well, I'm going to take this matter
Speaker 1: into my own hands.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, despite the social media call out, the dealership kept
Speaker 1: Victoria and her personal assistant waiting, and Victoria did a
Speaker 1: number of check ins on her story to let her
Speaker 1: followers know that she was still waiting. After waiting for
Speaker 1: over an hour, Victoria said.
Speaker 2: This, Sorry, Sarah, are we still here?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 2: This is so nice. I really like it. This is
Speaker 2: our second home that were confined too. It's giving illegal confinement.
Speaker 3: I'm not sure about that, but like maybe a little
Speaker 3: bit like that.
Speaker 1: Seriously, it's a pretty big call to say it's a
Speaker 1: legal confinement, but I guess that's how she was feeling.
Speaker 1: She clearly felt trapped. But the thing is, it's like,
Speaker 1: don't park in someone else's park. I mean, she's lucky
Speaker 1: that this person worked at Genesis and she could find them.
Speaker 1: If you parked in a reserve spot in a shopping
Speaker 1: center and the person then parked you in and then
Speaker 1: went shopping and you had nowhere to find them, you'd
Speaker 1: be sitting in your car, probably for a couple more hours. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: whilst Victoria was left waiting, she decided to call in
Speaker 1: the big gun. So she contacted Genesis's head office and
Speaker 1: alerted them to what was going down. I'm really surprised
Speaker 1: whoever runs Genesis social media hadn't already sounded them, because
Speaker 1: Victoria was tagging them in so many posts and this
Speaker 1: was over an hour period. Now, Victoria said, the team
Speaker 1: at head office were mortified and apologized, saying that this
Speaker 1: behavior was not part of their policy. It's quite clear
Speaker 1: that the head office then rang the dealership and directed
Speaker 1: them to move the car immediately. So after waiting for
Speaker 1: over an hour. Victoria and her assistant Zara, finally returned
Speaker 1: to the car, but the drama didn't stop there, so
Speaker 1: Victoria decided to show her followers exactly where she was parked,
Speaker 1: which I feel actually weakened her case because the reserve
Speaker 1: sign honestly couldn't be any bigger. There were giant letters
Speaker 1: spelling out reserved across multiple parks, and there was even
Speaker 1: a sign that said if you park here, you will
Speaker 1: get told. So I think she was actually lucky that
Speaker 1: she didn't get told. She did call herself a dufus
Speaker 1: in the post and said, yes, it says in giant
Speaker 1: letters that it's reserved, but I didn't see it as
Speaker 1: I was in a rush. Here's more of what she said,
Speaker 1: So I thought it.
Speaker 2: Was on that one, not on this one. And I
Speaker 2: know that there's like.
Speaker 3: A big reserve thing, but who would have known that
Speaker 3: they would do that, like actually insane, And then they
Speaker 3: doubled down on it, so like I called head office
Speaker 3: to get them to move, And this other girl is
Speaker 3: down here now, and I think she was here the
Speaker 3: whole time, Like I think they were both here the
Speaker 3: whole time, because like they were like, oh, no, we've
Speaker 3: been here.
Speaker 2: We saw you doing X, Y and Z.
Speaker 1: As you can hear. Whilst Victoria was filming, a Genesis
Speaker 1: staff member was keeping a very watchful eye over her
Speaker 1: because instead of leaving immediately, which is what I would
Speaker 1: have done, particularly if I was in a rush, Victoria
Speaker 1: and Zara decided to sit in the car, which was
Speaker 1: still in the reserve park, and Victoria continued to upload
Speaker 1: her social media posts about the run in. But wasn't
Speaker 1: the person wanting their park back. Wasn't in the case
Speaker 1: of I'm going to pull out and then you get out,
Speaker 1: and then I'll go back into my reserve park. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and clearly the team at that Genesis dealership were probably
Speaker 1: copying an absolute ear bashing from head office their behavior,
Speaker 1: and you'd see absolute red if you saw the individual
Speaker 1: in question who'd complained about you sitting there uploading more
Speaker 1: social media posts about the incident and inflaming it more.
Speaker 1: This is when the female staff member started taking photos
Speaker 1: of Victoria and Zara in the car, presumably to send
Speaker 1: a head office. Here's what Victoria said about her exchange
Speaker 1: with the female staff member.
Speaker 3: I was just uploading that video because it's actually illegal
Speaker 3: to use your phone and drive.
Speaker 2: And she came up and started taking photos of us. Alice,
Speaker 2: we look really cute today. We do look today, But
Speaker 2: what is this? It feels like I feel like I'm
Speaker 2: in an enclosure by literally.
Speaker 3: So I'm sitting in the car about to go and
Speaker 3: I'm just like looking at my phone. Honestly, I was
Speaker 3: a little bit frazzled and needed a hot minute because
Speaker 3: like that amount of confrontation made me feel I don't know,
Speaker 3: like I was high on adrenaline and I was like, oh,
Speaker 3: I need to calm down.
Speaker 2: Anyway, she comes.
Speaker 3: To the window after taking photos of me and like,
Speaker 3: I don't know doing what accidentally knocks my revision mirror. Fine,
Speaker 3: I know that was an accident, starts laughing at me
Speaker 3: and asking like are you leaving yet? Why aren't you
Speaker 3: leaving yet? You've been asked heaps of times. Have you
Speaker 3: learned your lesson? What? And then I go, sorry, what
Speaker 3: was your name? And She's like, what's that matter? Why's
Speaker 3: my name matter? And I said, oh, I'm just asking.
Speaker 3: My name's Victoria. What is your name? And then she
Speaker 3: taught me her name. I won't say that I have
Speaker 3: shared it with the business anyway. It was a very
Speaker 3: strange altercation where clearly the business did not endorse this.
Speaker 3: The business has apologized and they are like from the messages,
Speaker 3: I'm getting the vibe that they're mortified, but like, that
Speaker 3: is not how you do it.
Speaker 1: I can understand that Victoria probably did feel frazzled. And
Speaker 1: when you're in that moment, you either go into flight
Speaker 1: or fight, and you know you're putting your Instagram stories
Speaker 1: up and you're being really defensive and you just want
Speaker 1: to get out of there. And then once she was
Speaker 1: in a car, she's probably like, well, decompressing about it.
Speaker 1: If that had been me, though, I would have just
Speaker 1: gotten out of the reserve park ASoP might have pulled
Speaker 1: my car up into another park that wasn't reserved. I
Speaker 1: think it's also because influencers almost have a sense of
Speaker 1: entitled when when it comes to some brands. I mean,
Speaker 1: there'd be brands, particularly car brands, bending over backwards to
Speaker 1: work with the She's on the money team through sponsorships
Speaker 1: and that sort of thing, and you think she's like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, do these people know who I am?
Speaker 1: They should be more polite. To me, it did come
Speaker 1: across as very entitled, particularly when she was the one
Speaker 1: in the wrong in the first place. And when I
Speaker 1: was watching these stories, that's well, I could not get
Speaker 1: my head around. It's like, you're the one who's parked
Speaker 1: in the reserve spot. The person has come back to
Speaker 1: their park and you've taken it, so they've parked in
Speaker 1: front of you because they couldn't get a park. Then
Speaker 1: they're trying to do their job, and you expect them
Speaker 1: to drop everything and move their car so you can leave.
Speaker 1: That's not how it works well. This situation has left
Speaker 1: Victoria's followers divided. Some did agree with Victoria and said
Speaker 1: that the carry on by the dealership was unprofessional and unfair,
Speaker 1: whilst others were in disbelief that Victoria didn't see the
Speaker 1: large reserve sign and said that they'd also double park
Speaker 1: someone in if their park was taken. Victoria responded by
Speaker 1: saying that she knew she was in the wrong by
Speaker 1: parking in the spot, but she would have actually preferred
Speaker 1: them to follow the policy which was in place and
Speaker 1: to have towed her car, then to have had to
Speaker 1: experience this weird power trip. I really keep going back
Speaker 1: and forth with where I sit with this, because when
Speaker 1: I first saw Victoria's stories pop up. I assumed that
Speaker 1: she drove a Genesis like you did, Kate, and I
Speaker 1: thought she was a customer who was visiting the showroom,
Speaker 1: and I thought, wow, this is pretty out of line
Speaker 1: for a dealership to act like this to a customer.
Speaker 1: And perhaps, you know, she had some confusion over whether
Speaker 1: the parking bay was reserved for customers if it was
Speaker 1: in this shopping center. But when I realized that Victoria
Speaker 1: wasn't actually a Genesis customer and that she was trying
Speaker 1: to find a park in a shopping center, the dealership's
Speaker 1: reaction made a bit more sense to me, because I
Speaker 1: feel like this must be a regular problem for them
Speaker 1: if they're threatening to toe cars. I mean, if there's
Speaker 1: a sign up, clearly their parks get taken all the time.
Speaker 1: And I think that this staff member would have seen
Speaker 1: the Porsche made a generalization about Porsche owners and thought, wow,
Speaker 1: this person is fucking entitled. Yeah, I agree completely, and
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that I think the Genesis staff acted professionally,
Speaker 1: but I can understand if I was trying to do
Speaker 1: my job and I went to park my car, and
Speaker 1: they probably use it to do test drives as well.
Speaker 1: With customers. I can see why they would have got annoyed,
Speaker 1: and I don't think it's unreasonable to ask Victoria to
Speaker 1: wait while the person finished with a client before they
Speaker 1: moved their car, considering it was her fault in the
Speaker 1: first place that her car was parked in that spot.
Speaker 1: I don't think that the dealership is completely innocent in
Speaker 1: all of this, because they have gone on to make
Speaker 1: the brand look pretty bad. Victoria says that it was
Speaker 1: an honest mistake. She came in and apologized, and instead
Speaker 1: of being pricks and making her wait for over an hour,
Speaker 1: they could have just moved the car. They were clearly
Speaker 1: trying to teach her a lesson because they were annoyed. Well,
Speaker 1: they said that that's what. Yeah, And as Victoria said,
Speaker 1: this isn't an individual these are staff members representing a
Speaker 1: bigger business, one which subsequently then got scolded online to
Speaker 1: over eighty five thousand people. I'd be really interested to
Speaker 1: hear their side of events, though, because Victoria said, you know,
Speaker 1: she came in and politely asked them to move, but
Speaker 1: it would be interesting to hear how the staff thought
Speaker 1: that exchange played out in real life, because clearly she
Speaker 1: was annoyed that she got double parked in, and perhaps
Speaker 1: she didn't come across as polite as she may have
Speaker 1: hoped in saying that. I also think that in those
Speaker 1: largely male dominated areas like car dealerships, women can be
Speaker 1: treated very patronizingly. So I can see how she would
Speaker 1: have felt pretty helpless if she's got this group of
Speaker 1: men who were refusing to move the car. I know
Speaker 1: over there were men, though, because she referenced a female
Speaker 1: stuff it was later on two male staff members that
Speaker 1: she was dealing with. Initially for her, she runs multiple businesses.
Speaker 1: She probably had this huge stressful day ahead of her,
Speaker 1: and I think maybe some of the men at the
Speaker 1: dealership could have potentially got their noses out of joint
Speaker 1: that here's this successful woman in her early thirties driving
Speaker 1: a portion and they thought, fuck you, we're gonna punish you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it doesn't sound like they acted with good intentions either,
Speaker 1: and this is a pr disaster I think for everyone involved.
Speaker 1: In saying that, though, I was surprised that Victoria would
Speaker 1: act like that, considering she is someone who works with brands,
Speaker 1: being an influencer and through her podcast, and also someone
Speaker 1: who has a business, Because can you imagine if the
Speaker 1: shoe was on the other foot and someone spotted Victoria
Speaker 1: Devine getting out of her car that was parked in
Speaker 1: a reserve spot that clearly she wasn't meant to be
Speaker 1: parking in, and then named and shamed her publicly, like
Speaker 1: she wouldn't be happy with that look. To be honest,
Speaker 1: I think car parking dramas bring out the worst in everyone,
Speaker 1: though I have never experienced more rage than in a
Speaker 1: car park, particularly when it's Christmas time and someone steals
Speaker 1: your park. So I think that it can turn everyone
Speaker 1: into a of a jerk and you kind of revert
Speaker 1: back to acting like a child. Yeah. Well that is
Speaker 1: where we're going to leave things today. Thank you for
Speaker 1: listening to another episode of Outspoken. If you do enjoy
Speaker 1: the show, we would really appreciate it if you could
Speaker 1: leave us a review. This podcast was recorded on the
Speaker 1: traditional land of the Ghana people of the Adelaide Planes.
Speaker 1: We pay respect to elders past and present,