A Texas recruiter has come under fire for using Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s defamation trial to stimulate interest in his LinkedIn job posting.
Shawn Barnes, who works as a recruiter at GTN Technical Staffing and Consulting, crafted a fake post-trial “transcript” between the two actors that he posted to the site Tuesday to advertise a data analyst role.
“BOMBSHELL,” Barnes wrote. “The conversation between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard had at the end of the trial has been leaked!”
The recruiter then imagined Heard repeatedly asking Depp to look at her, before she asked: “Do you still love me, Johnny?”
In the faux transcript, Depp replied: “Amber, this might be the last time we ever speak, so please listen to me very carefully. If you know of a Data Analyst with experience in Python, SQL, A/B testing and Excel, you absolutely need to call Shawn Barnes with GTN Technical Staffing. He is the best!”
As of lunchtime Wednesday, the job posting has clocked a whopping 223,000 likes.
Many LinkedIn users responded to Barnes’ post, praising him for the creative way he attracted interest in the data analyst position.
“One of the most captivating employee search posts I’ve ever seen!” one tickled reader responded.
“Genius recruitment strategy,” a second LinkedIn user swooned, while others described Barnes as “brilliant,” “clever” and “hilarious.”
However, not everyone found Barnes’ post amusing, with some saying it was distasteful to use the trial — in which Heard and Depp leveled abuse allegations against each other — as fodder for attention.
“Using a trial about partner violence for lols. That’s pretty tasteless,” one person chided, while another said, “This is so gross, don’t even know what to say.”
The post was subsequently shared to Twitter, where many others blasted Barnes, including one who wrote: “I can’t be the only one who thinks using that lame ass fake transcript post of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard on LinkedIn is really cringe. Like what are we doing here y’all? Ugh LinkedIn is truly a dumpster fire.”
The Post has reached out to Barnes for comment.
However, Barnes isn’t the only person to use the Depp/Heard court case to attract interest in a vacant job position. According to the Independent, a Realtor also uploaded a similar fake transcript to advertise a vacant role with his business.
One person claimed they had seen multiple other imitations of the post, stating: “My LinkedIn feed is full of #recruiters sharing a post using the Johnny Depp trial as a punch line to promote positions. DV [domestic violence] isn’t a joke or a marketing tool. Your attempt to be clever by using other peoples trauma for profit is embarrassing. This is why your jobs won’t get filled.”
Depp is riding high after winning the legal case against Heard late last month. The “Pirates of the Caribbean” star was awarded $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages after a jury found Heard defamed him in an op-ed she penned for the Washington Post.
Meanwhile, Heard had a minor victory in her countersuit against Depp with the jury awarding her $2 million for compensatory damages.
This week, the “Aquaman” actress — who faced calls for her removal from an upcoming sequel for that movie — spoke out about the trial in a sit-down with NBC’s Savannah Guthrie, saying she still loves her ex-husband and has “no ill will” toward him.
