It’s been shat on, p*ssed on, shagged on, served as a golf tee and exploited in countless tourism campaigns aimed at depicting Australia as a great and mysterious land.
And now the long-suffering Uluru – Australia’s most iconic natural feature, and a sacred landmark to the Anangu (people) – is once again being exploited for cash, this time by the nation’s largest telecommunications carrier.
This afternoon, Telstra launched a social media campaign on Twitter, urging followers to post pictures from the strangest places they’ve ever received mobile phone coverage.
The best entries win a smartphone!
One of the four images Telstra is using to promote the competition is of a non-descript family on top of… you guessed it, Uluru.
It’s widely known that the Traditional Owners of Uluru ask people not to climb the rock. Regardless, thousands do each year, and some of them die in the process, deaths for which the Anangu people believe they are responsible.
Telstra’s posting of the Uluru pic inevitably encouraged others to post their photos from on top of Uluru, including this one from a follower whose views on respect are a little, well, disrespectful.
The social media campaign is still up on the site – if you’re quick, you can see it here.
A spokesperson for Telstra this afternoon suggested the corporation wasn’t responsible for pictures posted by followers. That was until he realized that Telstra posted the first picture from Uluru.
After commenting that it “wasn’t illegal” to climb Uluru, and querying whether anyone beyond this reporter actually had a problem with it (he obviously hadn’t read the growing number of comments on his own Twitter feed) the spokesperson agreed to provide written comment.
We’ll update this story when it arrives.
In the meantime, head on over to Telstra’s Twitter page and watch live as a social media campaign aimed at exploiting a sacred Aboriginal object descends into a racial shit-fight and some 'Aussie Aussie Aussie oi oi oi' chest beating.
UPDATE: A spokesperson for Telstra issued the following statement late this afternoon: "The Telstra network competition asks people to share a short video or image of the most unexpected place they have ever received Telstra Mobile coverage. People enter by posting an image or short video to their own social media channels and using the hashtag #telstranetwork. Some people have also entered commenting on Telstra posts about the competition on our 24×7 Facebook page.
"We occasionally share the entries received into the competition on Telstra owned social media channels.
"We understand that Telstra sharing entries referencing to Uluru may have caused offence, we regret this and apologise. All entries referencing Uluru have now been removed from Telstra owned social channels."
Sorry folks, show's over….
Donate To New Matilda
New Matilda is a small, independent media outlet. We survive through reader contributions, and never losing a lawsuit. If you got something from this article, giving something back helps us to continue speaking truth to power. Every little bit counts.
