It’s only January 7, but one great Australian is already receiving nominations for 2017 Australian of the Year.
His name is Dan, and he works for Optus.
Late last year Optus received a barrage of complaints for placing signage and advertising written in Arabic in stores in areas with large Arabic-speaking populations, like Casula in Sydney’s west.
Police were called in after staff at the Casula store were allegedly threatened. The signs were taken down.
Some customers then took their complaints online, where Optus social media extraordinaire Dan was waiting to respond.
This all happened a while ago, but thanks to one Tumblr and the magic of Reddit, people are now discovering the true scope of Dan’s brilliance.
Some people viewed the signs as a “marketing disaster” but Dan wasn’t having any of it.
Others decided that Dan must be Muslim to be defending the signs.
*Crowd goes wild*
Dan’s fielding marriage proposals, offers of free dinners and beers, and one guy even made a sign and went down to his local Optus shop.
He is also getting some unsolicited employment coaching, from people imploring him to demand a pay rise.
One man has nominated him for Australian of the Year.
Optus is getting a lot of love reflected back its way as well.
People from around the world are posting comments on the company’s Facebook page saying Dan makes them want to be an Optus customer.
“I’m not an Optus customer, and don’t even live in Australia anymore. I just liked to page so I could follow Dan. Well played!” one Canadian-based poster wrote.
And some Dan fans have started their own Dan from Optus page.
Dan, not one to get a big head it seems, has been responding to the comments when on duty.
Dan, we salute you.
Top Comments
Good onya Dan. It was sickening that shop staff were copping abuse and threats because the store had the Arabic text ads.
One of the great advantages of being an English - speaker is that wherever you go in the world, there will be someone speaking English to help you out. One of the great disadvantages of being an English speaker is that wherever you go in the world (bar Anglophone countries) you will need help. *
One of Australia's great failings is that we are monolingual and monocultural. That restricts our international business, trade and job opportunities. Multilingual societies are at an advantage over us, eg India, with their software companies.
We should be welcoming other cultures because it will make us so much richer in every way.
* (Except that while I have been to 25 countries the only place I had trouble communicating with the natives was Scotland.)
I remember being on a train travelling to Scotland when I was hearing a couple having a conversation behind me. I was thinking, 'Wow, they're speaking Gaelic, that's great!' Got to Scotland, lol jk, everyone speaks like this, and it ain't Gaelic!
Auch the noo! Wi yourrr name Kenny McLeod, my lad, surely yeed hay neigh prroblemm underrrstandin the Celtic brogue!