Naaman, a lot of people on Twitter seem to be talking about a farmer who destroyed a small plastic lion live on television because of the drought and online trolling and something something. What even is an ooshie?
Hi Michael. An ooshie is a miniature plastic animal – usually, but not exclusively, a lion.
Created by Woolworths to tie in to the new Lion King movie, the ooshies are similar to the very popular Coles Little Shop. Customers are able to claim an ooshie when they spend $30 at a Woolworths store.
When Melissa and Stephen realised they had a 'one of a kind' Lion King Woolworths Ooshie they advertised it for sale in exchange for much-needed water. However, after relentless abuse, Stephen destroyed the valuable Ooshie LIVE on air in protest of online trolls. #9Today pic.twitter.com/jVFkZ4XyTT
— The Today Show (@TheTodayShow) August 1, 2019
Australians have not reacted calmly to this marketing promotion. There are reports of the toys selling for astronomical sums on eBay. Numerous online sellers have received death threats, and Woolworths has launched an investigation into allegations that a corrupt black market has sprung up around their sale.
“We take the selling of The Lion King Ooshies and merchandise on eBay very seriously and we are making every effort to investigate this,” the company said on Facebook this week in response to allegations that a Woolworths insider was illegally selling the product.
It's 👏 just 👏 a 👏 piece 👏 of 👏 plastic 👏 https://t.co/tUYg7H39Qc
— news.com.au (@newscomauHQ) July 31, 2019
The “one-of-a-kind” Simba ooshie Melissa and Stephen found was the number one “furry Ooshie” – the first one to be produced. A “furry ooshie” is an even rarer sub-category of ooshie, of which only 100 exist.
Right. But, who are Melissa and Stephen? And why were they holding an ooshie live on breakfast television?
A dark and troubling road led us to the events of Friday morning.
Melissa Portingale and Stephen Black are hay growers who live in Katandra West, near Shepparton, in Victoria. As previously covered by Guardian Australia, in a long-running series of investigations, drought and mismanagement of the Murray-Darling basin has left many farmers without adequate water.
After Melissa and Stephen found themselves in possession of the precious ooshie, they posted it for sale on Facebook. But they were subjected to a vicious barrage of online trolling for attempting to profit from the sacred creature. So, they decided to make a valuable political point instead.
Melissa told Channel Nine’s Today Show on Friday: “We copped a lot of abuse for it, so I decided to ask about water instead, which seems to be the more relevant issue at hand.”
She posted on Facebook: “I’m wanting to trade it for irrigation water to use on our dying farm due to the mismanagement from our government of the Murray-Darling Basin.”
OK, this is getting darker than I expected. What happened next?
Unfortunately, this only fanned the flames of the situation.
The online mob was not sated. Bids flew in but many were cruel tricks. Melissa received 4,000 messages to her phone, offering as little as 20c, and as much as $20,000 for the ooshie. They didn’t know which were real and which weren’t.
So Melissa and Stephen felt they had been pushed to the only logical option. The ooshie had to be destroyed.
“It’s the irrigation water,” they said, in a live cross on Friday morning. “We have a problem down the Murray-Darling of water. If everybody was so interested in that [the ooshie], then maybe ... the message would get out there.”
“Desperate times call for desperate measures,” said Today’s host Georgie Gardner. “And no one could criticise you for that.”
Stephen said: “We’re taking a stand against this online bullying, it’s just not on. If this is the moment I need to do something, then I need to do it. I don’t want to be standing here on national TV, but I do want the message to get out there.”
Please tell me Stephen did not harm the exquisite ooshie?
He took out a pair of scissors. It all seemed to happen in slow motion.
“What is a life worth? Is it worth ... what money? We don’t know,” he asked.
By 8am the deed was done.
“It was about getting the message out there that water is such an issue.”
The priceless ooshie was dead. But like Mufasa in the Lion King, it lives in you.
