IT’S THE SAGA that will never end. Bloggergate. Confused? Let us catch you up.
It all began with an innocent request from a 22-year-old blogger, Elle Darby, to the Charleville Lodge for free accommodation in exchange for exposure on her social channels. It happens, fair enough, but unfortunately she asked the wrong person.
Have you ever seen Buzzfeed’s shitstorm parodies? Well, it happened exactly like that.
First of all, she was exposed by Paul Stenson, who is in control of social media for the Charleville Lodge and the infamous White Moose Cafe
He wrote on a Facebook post, that now has over 36k likes and 4,560 shares…
Thank you for your email looking for free accommodation in return for exposure. It takes a lot of balls to send an email like that, if not much self-respect and dignity.
If I let you stay here in return for a feature in your video, who is going to pay the staff who look after you? Who is going to pay the housekeepers who clean your room? The waiters who serve you breakfast? The receptionist who checks you in? Who is going to pay for the light and heat you use during your stay? The laundering of your bed sheets? The water rates? Maybe I should tell my staff they will be featured in your video in lieu of receiving payment for work carried out while you’re in residence?
You can read the rest here, we can’t go on.
Elle made a video about the exposure, apologising, despite the fact that she was not named in the original Facebook post
There was outrage at how she was treated, but also a whole lot of hate directed her way for asking for a free hotel stay
It was picked up by international press
Oh God, what have we done?
The White Moose Cafe, surfing on the wave of coverage, pulled their next stunt
They banned all bloggers from the business.
Not happy with that, they ‘billed’ her for the publicity she got off the back of their Facebook post
People were literally calculating the numbers as to who benefitted the most from the whole ordeal (it was Elle Darby)
As the media reported on EVERY LITTLE DETAIL, Paul and Co felt the need to do a parody press conference to clear a few things up
It was EVERYWHERE. It spread like a bad disease
Source: alina ♡/Twitter
The hotel made T-Shirts
It got a bit out of hand, with the tide turning radically against Elle
Paul even tweeted that people should lay off her.
She made ANOTHER video, saying she had received death threats and the whole ordeal is having a great impact on her mental health
Then Paul reiterated his stance on targeting Elle so viciously
So, here we are. What seemed like a joke at the start is getting darker as the days go on. Just think of it this way, in a month or so this will just be another viral spat.
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