The Seven Network has landed itself in even more hot water, after images and video of a group of “sexy Santas” dancing at a staff event in Perth have been made public. The footage comes shortly after the workplace culture at the media company was accused of sexism.
Last Friday, a Seven Network staff meeting at a town hall in Perth was held to announce several promotions within the company. It was attended by the network’s deputy news director Ray Kuka, and chairman Kerry Stokes.
However, much to the shock of various staff members, also in attendance at the staff meeting was a group of “sexy Santa” dancers, who performed high kicks in short skirts to Mariah Carey‘s “All I Want For Christmas Is You”.
First reported by the Australian Financial Review, Kuka gave a presentation to present staff on the network’s upcoming programming, which included a Perth Christmas pageant in December.
For whatever reason, the pageant (which doesn’t air for another four months) was then promoted to staff through a live dance by one of the competing pageant groups.
You know, like how completely normal companies do at their completely normal staff meetings.
Just in case there’s any Seven executives reading: I was being sarcastic. Don’t do that. It is so so so so weird.
Santa dance comes after bombshell allegations against Seven
This cooked-Christmas performance came across as tone-deaf because the network was the subject of an ABC’s Four Corners investigation, which alleged Seven was home to a sexist and toxic workplace culture
The bombshell report by the national broadcaster aired interviews with former female staff members at the Seven Network, who described the workplace as “degrading” and “soul crushing”. One woman sharing she had been made severely mentally ill by the culture.
Following the Four Corners report, the Seven Network addressed the allegations and said that the behaviours of a few individuals are not indicative of the values of the entire company.
“Our focus is to build a stronger culture that enables our great people to thrive, and where unacceptable behaviour is not tolerated,” said a Seven spokesperson.
Staff and media react to Seven’s “sexy Santas”
The dance has been described as “unfortunate timing” by many outlets — much in the same way that it is “unfortunate timing” when your partner is caught red-handed texting their ex after you asked them not to.
Various female staff members were reported to have left the meeting in disgust at the performance, with some reporting anonymously to other outlets that the entire fiasco was “incredibly cringe”.
And now we have video…https://t.co/LrAbkfvNji pic.twitter.com/9Hslo6TqVC
— Mark Di Stefano (@MarkDiStef) August 27, 2024
However, some staff in attendance have come to the defence of the dance.
Sarah-Jane Tasker, the newly appointed first female editor of The West Australian (owned by Seven West Media), told Guardian Australia that the reaction to the dance was “over the top”.
“I understand the focus from Nine, clearly they want to score points against Seven and will do so in any way possible,” Tasker told the publication. (Disclosure: Nine wholly owns PEDESTRIAN.TV.)
A point made void by the fact that the meeting was deemed such a colossal cock-up that it made international headlines, with even the New York Post blasting Seven for the performance.
[Image: Getty/AFR]
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