Close
Search
Menu Menu
[gtranslate]

Willy Wonka-inspired Glasgow experience scam shows danger of AI

Credit: Stuart Sinclair
By
London, UK
0 comments
0 comments

An ‘immersive’ Glasgow adventure day based on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has been described as a scam, after ticket-goers complained of a lacklustre experience. It’s an example of how unchecked AI advertisements can lead to serious product misrepresentation.

Nearly everyone has seen or read the classic tale of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Written by Roald Dahl in 1964 and later adapted into several films starring Gene Wilder and Johnny Depp, it is considered a literary classic. It follows the experiences of a small boy, Charlie Bucket, as he takes a tour of Willy Wonka’s famous chocolate factory.

The novel describes fanciful lakes of chocolate, towering pipes of liquorice, and magical tunnels that spin Charlie’s sensory perceptions upside down. What it does not depict is an empty, grey warehouse in Glasgow with a few AI-generated banners crudely taped to a concrete wall.

That’s what unfortunate ticket-goers for ‘Welcome to Willy’s Chocolate Experience’ were treated to this past weekend.


What was ‘Welcome to Willy’s Chocolate Experience’ supposed to be?

Organised by events company House of Illuminati, ‘Welcome to Willy’s Chocolate Experience’ was advertised as an immersive, in-person experience that could turn ‘chocolate dreams [into] reality.’

The official website boasted an ‘enchanted garden, giant sweets, vibrant blooms, mysterious looking sculptures, and magical surprises.’

Tickets started at £35 and intended to include a host of decorated spaces and exhibits that would ‘transport you into a realm of creativity’. Live performances were promised alongside a ‘twilight tunnel’ and ‘imagination lab’.

According to reports, hundreds of parents purchased tickets and were sorely disappointed when they arrived to a mostly-barren events space that boasted a single, small bouncy castle, a few plastic chairs, and a school cafeteria table.

Proceedings were so poor that the police had to intervene and halt operations halfway through the first day.

Customers described the day as ‘appalling’, and an ‘absolute shambles of an event’.

Attendee Stuart Sinclair said to Sky News that his children ‘only received a couple of jelly babies and a quarter of a can of Barr’s Limeade’. That’s a far cry from the life-altering adventure promised by House of Illuminati.

Decorations appeared to be products from a mix of various franchises, including Santa’s Grotto candy canes, model mushrooms from an Alice in Wonderland exhibit, a non-descript ‘factory’ archway, and AI-generated posters. They’re sparsely scattered across the large events space, and do little to balance out the overwhelming grey walls and flooring.

Full refunds have been forcefully issued onto House of Illuminati, who now promises to give all customers their money back despite a ‘no refunds’ policy on its website. This may take up to ten days, it says. A Facebook group has been set up by disgruntled visitors who were let down by the day’s events.

A spokesperson added that the company was ‘devastated’ and that it ‘understood people’s anger and frustration’.


What went wrong here?

While this ordeal is undoubtedly funny, it does demonstrate the dangers that AI poses when it comes to authentic advertising, scams, and misrepresentation of real world experiences.

Anyone who has generated their own images or experimented with DALL-E before could likely deduce that House of Illuminati’s advertorial images were all entirely made using AI. It’s fair to assume that much of the text was put together using ChatGPT too, as it seldom makes complete sense and is full of errors.

Given how obviously fake the whole thing seemed, is there some onus on customers who weren’t able to tell that something was ‘off’ here?

Perhaps. Consumers need to be more rigorously thorough when researching events they’re paying hefty money for in this new, AI-generated age. Any scam artist can chuck together impressive images at a moment’s notice. If something seems off, it probably is.

By that same token, however, it’s becoming increasingly easier to present professional imagery, branding, and products as if they are genuine experiences.

With OpenAI’s new generating software, Sora, it will soon be possible for anyone to generate convincing video with a few simple prompts.

Imagine if House of Illuminati had got its hands on Sora? We’d have seen striking, moving images of this fictional ‘experience’ that would have likely swindled even more customers.

It’s unreasonable to expect the general public to accurately determine whether a product is real or made with AI, especially older people or those unfamiliar with artificial intelligence.

We already struggle to determine real and fake news as it is, let alone with increasingly muddled imagery and video.

Ultimately, ‘Welcome to Willy’s Chocolate Experience’ was a prime (if not hilarious) real-world example of AI fooling the general public into a day-out that was anything but immersive.

It isn’t the first and won’t be the last.

Editor In Chief London, UK

I’m Charlie (He/Him), the Editor In Chief at Thred. I studied English at the University of Birmingham and as a music and gaming enthusiast, I’m a nerd for pop culture. You can find me curating playlists, designing article headline images, and sipping cider on a Thursday. Follow me on Twitter, LinkedIn and drop me some ideas/feedback via email.

Popular

Keep up with thred by signing up to our planet-positive newsletter!

More from thred.

What men got wrong about the #WomenInMaleFields trend
Credit: Thred/Tiktok
Media

What men got wrong about the #WomenInMaleFields trend

As they did with the Man vs Bear debate, straight men have once again tried to satirise one of women’s online trends, and it’s only made them look worse. The #WomenInMaleFields trend that dominated social media not long ago satirises behaviours associated with toxic men and the dating habits they perpetuate. The general idea is: women overlay a photo/video of themselves with text quoting a heard-before excuse, as if they were...

By Manchester, England
Is it really lonely at the top?
Credit: Brittanica
Offbeat

Is it really lonely at the top?

It’s long been posited that money can’t buy happiness – apart from maybe the £9.90 it costs for prescribed antidepressants – but can alienation caused by excessive wealth harm our ability to form interpersonal connections? The other day I was walking through the display rooms in a well-known, Swedish, affordable furniture retailer, when my best mate pointed out two sinks side by side in one of the show bathrooms. She made...

By Manchester, England
Opinion – Blake Lively drama shows we’re still quick to hate women
Credit: Sony Pictures
Media

Opinion – Blake Lively drama shows we’re still quick to hate women

Blake Lively proves our desire to watch successful women burn is both pervasive and insidious. But are times finally changing?  When Colleen Hoover’s wildly successful novel ‘It Ends With Us’ was released as a feature film last year, the media went wild. But besides the dedicated fans who lined up to see their favourite characters on the silver screen, much of the attention shifted to on-set issues.  It was somewhat surreal...

By Brighton, UK
Accessibility