Scial Media's Shame - The Case of the Tragic Suicide of Charlotte Dawson

This week I want to dedicate the Road Scholars Marketing Blog post to the memory of former model and television personality Charlotte Dawson. 

 As many of you would know Charlotte had been suffering depression for some time and had in fact attempted suicide in the past, based on the abysmal behaviour of the lunatic fringe in this country who were involved in a merciless and seemingly unending campaign to humiliate and destroy this woman whose only crime had been that she had had the audacity to have some cosmetic surgery.

It's fair to say that at best this feral behaviors is un-Australian and at worst it is (or rather should be) overtly criminal.

Tragically despite repeated pleas to stop the verbal and emotional barrage, the abusers kept up their tirade which ultimately led to Charlotte taking her own life when she was found dead in her Sydney apartment recently.

Clearly the law has not kept up with the evolving technology and in particular all forms of social and digital media such as these social media platforms that were used to launch these attacks.
Cyber bullying is clearly no more acceptable than school yard bullying, where someone has paid the ultimate price for this display of absolute stupidity and ignorance.

As a marketer I am ashamed that people out there are doing this but also that they are using marketing tools that should be used to connect with and engage with people not damage them.
The right of free speech is one thing but even free speech must have its limits, responsibilities and inevitably accountabilities.

It is now time for the Government to step in and change the laws immediately that will firstly name and shame these villains and then punish them for their savage brutality whose intent can be for no other reason other than to injure, diminish or destroy another individual.


If one good thing comes out of this tragedy it needs to be the birth of such a law that is enacted to protect the welfare of such vulnerable people everywhere. Perhaps it can be called, Charlotte's Law.