Scott Morrison Isn't A Fan Of The 'Scotty From Marketing' Nickname

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has gleefully adapted to his nickname 'ScoMo'.

It's reminiscent of nicknames given to other politicians, such as 'Albo' (Labor leader Anthony Albanese) and 'Kevin07' (former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd).

But another pseudonym has been following him ever since The Betoota Advocate published a satirical story about Mr Morrison, calling him 'Scotty From Marketing'.

PA

It stems from the Prime Minister's former role as managing director for Tourism Australia and director of the New Zealand Office of Tourism and Sport, and is based on implications that he's a politician who focuses on spin.

One such example occurred during the ongoing bushfire crisis - Mr Morrison was criticised for holding a press conference to speak about the government's Religious Freedoms Bill, on a day when many parts of New South Wales was choking on hazardous smoke from the fires.

A hashtag referencing the nickname has picked up popularity on social media among those who are more critical of the Prime Minister's politics.

Unsurprisingly, ScoMo isn't too happy with Scotty From Marketing.

Speaking to Melbourne radio station 3AW, Mr Morrison told host Neil Mitchell: "That's what the Labor Party is saying and if others want to repeat those slogans, well, they're basically just running a Labor Party campaign."

When asked whether he thought Scotty From Marketing was an insult, Mr Morrison replied with: "Oh look, I don't really care. I mean, the Labor party are going to make snarky comments.

"They're going to take political advantage of a crisis. I think that's disappointing. I'm just focused on what people need. I'll leave the politics and the commentary and the hoopla to others.

"There's been lots of commentary and lots of stuff on social media and news agencies reporting social media as if it's truth, but that's not my focus. My focus is getting help to people who need it right now in the bushfires."

PA

Urban Dictionary has also picked up on the nickname, and... well, it's not very kind.

The definition that UD decided to use (because there are actually several for ScoMo) is: "A person in charge who leaves things to others when a difficult or emergency situation arises."

Clearly it's a nod to when Mr Morrison visited Hawaii on a family holiday as the bushfire crisis was escalating late last year.

Urban Dictionary was kind enough to provide a user-generated example of what ScoMo means, which is: "S*** was going really t**s up at work this week so I ScoMo'd off to a tropical island for some R&R and let someone else sort it out."

Topics: News, Australia, politics

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

@stewartperrie