TikToker for Branding Company Punks Viewers by Faking Getting Fired to Gain Followers and It Totally Works

Nothing like a workplace saga to catch your attention. Speaking of attention, it was a New Zealand branding company called The Attention Seeker recently went viral on TikTok for a wild workplace drama. The social media manager named Joanie was let loose on their TikTok. So many of the videos are of her pranking the office or making coworkers to participate in silly TikTok trends. Many things she posted on the official company's account had viewers wondering how she was getting away with it—little did everyone know, that's exactly what she wanted everybody to think. 

“Being Gen Z in the office is tough…”

The original video that got everyone hooked was a video of her getting “told off” by a coworker in the middle of her trying to do a TikTok trend. In the video the coworker is telling her that it's unprofessional to respond to an email with “that sounds like a you problem," while her face is in the middle of transitioning into a cat due to a filter that was on. Several videos after that she posts a follow up that shows the same coworker saying she didn't appreciate her posting that video and that HR was going to reach out to her. 

“I think this might be my last post…”

“bro isn't this why he hired me”

After those two videos, she finally posted one saying she was pretty sure she was about to be fired. She said her boss told her to work from home, which was unusual and that he needed to have a chat with her. He called her in the middle of that video and told her he wasn't sure where her position in the company was going and the videos she was making for the company were not what he had in mind. That video was left on a cliff hanger until several days later, when she shares a video of the “HR meeting” and he says he's keeping her on the team. 

“The HR meeting was tough. I’ll see you guys on the flip side.”

Finally, the saga comes to an end and then she drops another video confessing that it was all fake. 

“Gotcha! I didn't get fired. In fact, I did exactly what my boss wanted me to do. We built an audience through storytelling and created a connection with all of you. This ties in quite nicely with what we do as an agency: Personal Branding. Personal branding is essentially an online reputation, just as you guys know me as the girl who makes TikToks for The Attention Seeker, we help clients become known online for the things they want to be known for. Because at the end of the day people want to do business with real people—people want to know you, like you, and only then will they buy from you. We do this by grabbing your attention on social media…” 

“Gotcha! I didn't get fired. In fact, I did exactly what my boss wanted me to do…”

You'd think the followers the company gained because of this saga would be upset, but most of them are just impressed. She may have tricked most of the internet, but she did her job and got more followers and her company recognized on TikTok. The entire plan actually worked and viewers on TikTok are taking note.