Last month, Love Island contestant Cassie Lansdell got sprung asking for free shit from Sydney rooftop bar Slim’s Rooftop.
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The savage establishment shared screenshots of Lansdell’s DM request as a means of deterring influencers from hitting them up for free requests, as loads of other places have done lately.
While I’m certain that most punters will be on the bar’s side on this one, Cassie’s fellow reality star Matty J has publicly backed her.
Speaking on The Babble, his podcast with Natalie Bassingthwaite, Johnson said he thought her request was “quite a polite way of discussing the opportunity of collaborating.”
“Now I think not only is that harsh, but then what they did following this is a little bit below the belt. They posted that on their Instagram page and there’s no need,” he explained.
He then points out that the bar later deleted their post, indicating that they likely recognised that what they had done was pretty brutal.
“She’s come out and she said ‘I’ve received so much hate for this’ and I do think it’s unfair and I also think it’s a little bit naive from the venue to treat an influencer like this,” he said.
“Don’t get me wrong, I know there are influencers out there who are viewed negatively because all they do is post very raunchy, skimpy photos of themselves and all they want to do really is get a free dinner, they’re not about promoting a great venue to people, they just want stuff for free.”
Matty said that while the guys at Slim’s might “hate influencers”, he reckons it can actually be an effective marketing technique.
“There’s a baby blanket called O.B. Blankets and Laura [Byrne] did an Instagram story saying they’re really great, just because they’re really cheap, a really good product, they’re Australian made,” Matty recalled.
“A couple of days later that company hit up Laura and said ‘We completely sold out of that product in 48 hours and we couldn’t figure out what happened and we realised it’s because you did a story,’ so it can be really beneficial for brands.”
