You know that feeling you get when you clock a new Instagram post that’s curiously similar to one of your own? That sneaking suspicion the slow-poke pleb in question actually jacked your steez?
Imagine that feeling wasn’t borne of paranoia, and that someone out there was recreating your ~content~ with terrifying accuracy.
Back in 2016, that’s the reality travel Australian influencer Lauren Bullen found herself in. In a startling blog post, Bullen revealed someone out there has been methodically following her and partner Jack Morris around the world to recreate their shots.
Bullen and Morris, whose accounts @gypsea_lust and @doyoutravel have a combined following of around 2 million people, appear to have been the target of a coordinated and globe-trotting copycat spree. As always, screenshots prove it:
via Gypsea Lust Photo.
via Gypsea Lust Photo.
via Gypsea Lust Photo.
via Gypsea Lust Photo.
Right?
Bullen writes the images “truly shocked me.”
“At first I thought it was all photoshopped & had to take screen shots to compare the two.
“They honestly did an incredible job copying our imagery, controversially insane mimics, so I congratulate them for this!”
Of course, it’s not just the locations that were copied. Bullen writes “the amount of time and pre-organising she put into arranging the outfits, I don’t promote and tag everything I wear, so that would have taken a lot of time and work, even down to the anklets and necklace.”
Again, the screenshots don’t lie:
via Gypsea Lust Photo.
via Gypsea Lust Photo.
After all that weirdness – we’d be kissing our following goodbye and starting a new account, tbh – Bullen managed to get in contact with the copycat. The offending account “tried to justify it by just saying everyone copies us and even big accounts are taking same pictures at the same place”.
Still, Bullen seemed more perplexed than anything. She spoke directly to the account-holder, saying “you are copying and stealing someone’s art to a ridiculously creepy level,” but “what you’ve done is an art (sic) in itself- you’ve caused [a] reaction & I think that’s the point in creating art isn’t it..?”
We agree. But we also reckon there are better ways of doing it than EFFECTIVELY STALKING SOCIAL MEDIA PROFESSIONALS AROUND THE GODDAMN PLANET.
