Scoot takes a jab at influencer-photographer accused of copying work

Scoot has taken a cheeky swipe at an unfolding saga involving Instagram influencer and photographer Daryl Aiden Yow, taking a chance to promote its flights to Athens, Greece.Without directly referring to Yow, Scoot took an image tagged to be taken in Mykonos, Greece, which was similar to one Yow had posted on Instagram. It then superimposed a cut-out silhouette with a caption “insert self here (for real)”.  The post also touted Scoot flights to Athens which start at SG$219, and the airline’s first anniversary sale since it launched its flight to Athens.The post garnered over 1,900 reactions, 1,239 shares and 379 comments at the time of writing, with many netizens praising Scoot for the witty swipe and for its social media strategy. The post was also responded to by Scoot’s social media team which continued to engage users."I’m as amused and chuffed as everyone else looking on. The Scoot social media team and our partners BLKJ actually had a planned roll-out for the Berlin launch sale but were able to very quickly switch tacks when this news hit," Jacqueline Loh, VP marketing, Scoot, said in a conversation with Marketing.She added that this was made possible because of the empowerment culture the brand fosters where decisions can be taken by the team without escalation."In this day and age, people demand that brands behave like people do – and sometimes that means getting in on inside jokes and sharing a laugh with them. Our clients understood that and we worked together to get this out quickly," He Ruiming, social lead and Lyla Huang, writer, BLKJ, added in a joint statement.In case you missed out on the drama, Yow was called out for editing the work of other photographers and passing off as his own. Netizens also called Yow out for super-imposing himself in several images. This included the work of other photographers as well as stock images, as investigated by media outlets.Netizens also called Yow out for using some of the edited content as branded content for clients. One client in particular was Sony Singapore, and another one was Issey Miyake Parfum, which drew comparisons to the cover of a book by Julian Worker titled Ten Traveller’s Tales. Marketing has reached out to Yow, Sony and Issey Miyake Parfum for comment.