Australian online gambling brand Luxbet has punked the nation’s social media users via an employee’s staged social media meltdown.
On Wednesday, a man identified as ‘Dave’ who claimed to be Luxbet’s social media manager launched an epic Twitter rant. Dave claimed that he’d been fired from the company earlier that day for having gone nine days without any new posts from Luxbet’s official social media accounts.
Dave’s first post was a screenshot of the email he allegedly received informing him of the reasons behind his dismissal. The email included the reminder that “this is a key period for us with the launch of the new Luxbet app.”
Dave initially expressed outrage that he’d been fired “on my day off,” then posted that he’d been locked out of Luxbet’s Facebook account but had “changed their Twitter password and reset email HAHAHAH,” helpfully adding the hashtag #DaveGetsFired.
Dave got increasingly juvenile as the stunt progressed, altering the Luxbet logo to read ‘Davebet’ and urging the feed’s followers to help get him reinstated by using the hashtag #SaveDave. Along the way, Dave reminded his audience that Luxbet had been trying to get him to promote its new betting app.
Not everyone was buying Dave’s ruse, and as #DaveGetsFired began trending in Sydney, Luxbet confirmed to marketing media outlet Mumbrella that the whole affair had been a stunt to promote its new app.
The company apologized to its followers for leading them on and offered to make amends by inviting everyone down to “Dave’s farewell” at a Sydney pub, promising to spend up to $5k providing free lunchtime libations, making good on Dave’s earlier promise to buy people free pizza with the Luxbet corporate credit card.
The Northern Territory-licensed Luxbet is part of Aussie betting operator Tabcorp’s family of gambling brands.
