BRISBANE – Tourism Queensland concocted the story of a woman who supposedly tattooed an advertisement for the Great Barrier Reef on her arm to win a dream island job.
Tourism Queensland invited people to send in a 60-second video of themselves to apply for a $150,000 caretaker job for Hamilton Island, which it dubbed “the best job in the world”.
Local and international media outlets – including The Mole – last week reported thousands of applicants had already sent in videos, including an Australian woman called “Tegan” who supposedly showed herself visiting a tattoo parlour to get a 10-centimetre tattoo proving her love for the Great Barrier Reef.
But Tourism Queensland has since admitted “Tegan” was not a genuine applicant, but a member of the ad agency that created the campaign promoting the Great Barrier Reef islands.
It said the “fake” video was only intended as an example of the creativity Tourism Queensland expected from applicants, and to spur people to post their own videos.
