I read with amusement and a whole lot of sympathy for the attendees of the disastrous 'Willy's Chocolate Experience' in Glasgow that was scheduled for February 24 and 25. I took a look at the ticketing website hosted by House of Illuminati. Woah. That looked great, although it had nothing to do with the actual franchise held by Warner Bros. The photos that came out of the actual event were starkly bare. The event was then completely canceled during its pre-show preview... before the actual publicly ticketed show dates.
People who bought tickets yelled fraud. They had a completely disappointed and pared-down experience. Most didn't even see anything before the show's cancellation. Apparently, the worst part of it all was, there were no chocolates during the preview. Ugh. The New York Times reported,
Families in Scotland were expecting to taste chocolate treats and observe “optical marvels” at a Willy Wonka-themed event in Glasgow this past weekend. Instead, they got a couple of jelly beans, a short walk around a nearly empty warehouse and a visit from police officers.
.....................
The event was marketed like immersive experiences that have appeared in cities across the world in the last two decades, such as the Museum of Ice Cream in New York and “Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience.”
The event’s website built on that suggestion but also hinted that the experience might be of questionable quality.
It promised “a journey filled with delicious treats, enchanting adventures, and moments worth capturing,” and it included elaborate, candy-colored illustrations. Those illustrations were marred by unusual misspellings and phrases, including: “a pasadise of sweet teats” and “exarserdray lollipops.”
This is like the children's version of Fyre Festival. Remember that 2017 debacle? They totally made a Netflix docufilm about that. That was such slick marketing with celebrities on the billboards too! The organizers milked everyone of US$26million! The founder Billy McFarland went to jail and is now freed and apparently wants to do Fyre Festival II. What the. LOLOLOL
Then we have our very own uproar over a sky lantern festival in Sentosa that never happened and full refunds aren't possible. The festival made no refunds, but has promised to reschedule to April, but it's doubtful if SCDF would issue them the necessary permits. It's highly debatable if the organisers even have the budget to set up safety protocols and security personnel to adhere to fire and crowd regulations.
Slick social media reels and savvy marketing tactics can make any event or festival seem hip. If people buy into it, and the organizers are dubious, then we get a situation like this. Angry humans with monies lost to scams.
We have phone scams, e-commerce and love scams, and whatever scams. Then we have these sort of festival scams, concert ticketing scams and well, Taylor Swift ticket scams. Woah. Living in these tech-savvy times is a headache. Not to mention we'll have businesses (especially gyms and beauty salons) that open up and then abruptly close shop, leaving clients and members who bought packages in the lurch. Trust is so thin these days.
No comments:
Post a Comment