This story is going to go down in the Internet Hall of Fame for being absolutely terrible yet completely hilarious. Last weekend, an event went down in Glasgow called “Willy’s Chocolate Experience.” Yeah, that title alone was poorly thought out and should have been the first, err, tip off. “Willy’s Chocolate Experience” was supposed to be an “immersive experience” into the world of Willy Wonka. It was marketed with gorgeous images that looked like the Candy Man’s factory. Ad copy promoted it as a journey into his world of pure imagination.
If an immersive experience into Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory sounds too good to be true, that’s because it was. After spending more than $40 per ticket and expecting chocolate rivers, cream-topped mushrooms, and snozzberries that taste like snozzberries, hundreds of families experienced their own PG version of Fyre Fest. The venue was basically an empty warehouse with some low budget decorations, half-hearted performers, and no chocolate. It was so bad that people called the police, comparing it to a meth lab. Help. Police. Murder.
They’ll begin with a (marketing) spin: The U.K. event was titled Willy’s Chocolate Experience and charged customers $44 each. The attraction was not affiliated with the Warner Bros. movie Wonka, though the event’s marketing came as close as possible to suggesting it was based on author Roald Dahl’s creation. The ad copy invited fans to journey to “a universe where confectionary dreams are brought to life” that included “mind-expanding projections, optical marvels and exhibits that transport you into the realm of creativity” and “wondrous creations and enchanting surprises at every turn!”
What compares with pure A.I. creations: The event organizers apparently used artificial intelligence to generate promotional images that suggested a very high-quality attraction, which looked just like the immersive and trippy Wonka-esque world that the ad copy promised. But the result was somewhat different, and ticket buyers needed pure imagination to think it looked anything like a fantastical chocolate factory.
You get nothing! As reported by The Guardian, customers showed up in Glasgow to find “a sparsely decorated warehouse with a scattering of plastic props, a small bouncy castle and some backdrops pinned against the walls.” Scotland police were even called to the scene, the event shut down and parents said their children were in tears. All the event lacked was a man in top hat telling customers: “You get nothing! You lose! Good day, sir!”
Candy wasn’t dandy: Of course, one could argue that a Willy Wonka-inspired event that ended with angry parents and crying children is more authentic to Dahl’s novel than any of the recent Wonka movies. The Guardian added that event organizers refunded tickets and apologized for the “very stressful and frustrating day,” telling customers, “Unfortunately, last minute we were let down in many areas of our event and tried our best to continue on and push through and now realise we probably should have cancelled first thing this morning instead.”
And so shines a good apology in a weary world.
Okay, first off, I absolutely need to give credit to THR reporter who wrote that final line, “And so shines a good apology in a weary world.” Outstanding call back, sir. Also, lmao at the point about a Wonka-inspired event ending with angry parents and crying children being true to the source material. I mean, hat’s off.
But yeah, holy sh–t, on a scale of Fyre Fest to George Santos, this one was a doozy. I know it’s probably not funny to the people who got scammed by it (which I admit, I easily could have been), but I am dyyying reading all of the news about how outstandingly terrible this was. There are pictures and videos all over social media. To me, it looked like a Wonka experience set up in a middle school gymnasium, with sets and props made by students for a PTA fundraiser. WaPo reported that kids were given “two jelly beans and half a cup of lemonade” to fulfill the candy portion of the event and there was no chocolate! I mean, the chutzpah is admirable. And yes, I know that this really highlights the need for some sort of A.I. regulation to protect consumers from being scammed, but they had so much time and so little to do. Wait a minute. Strike that, reverse it.
Police were called to a “Willy Wonka Experience” in the UK after hundreds of families were left scammed
– $40 tickets for entry
– AI images advertised the event
– Venue was an empty warehouse
– Staff given scripts the night before
The photos are almost too good to be true pic.twitter.com/PXklBmnQH6
— Morning Brew (@MorningBrew) February 27, 2024
apparently this was sold as a live Willy Wonka Experience but they used all AI images on the website to sell tickets and then people showed up and saw this and it got so bad people called the cops lmao pic.twitter.com/tfkyg0G0WG
— Chris Alsikkan (@AlsikkanTV) February 26, 2024
This Willy Wonka story is incredible. What’s going on here? What part of the film was this hahahahaha. pic.twitter.com/A66AxwYVhN
— Ben (@bene25_) February 28, 2024
photos via Twitter