A Willy Wonka-themed “immersive experience” is being mocked online after event organizers used artificial intelligence (AI) to drum up business but failed to deliver on what was being advertised.
The U.K. event, called “Willy’s Chocolate Experience,” charged customers $44 per ticket and promised attendees that they’d visit “a universe where confectionary dreams are brought to life” with “mind-expanding projections” and “wondrous creations and enchanting surprises at every turn!”
Event organizers used AI-generated images, making the event look like a colorful wonderland of amusement. But attendees were disappointed to find the actual venue did not look anything like the advertisements.
The Guardian reported that customers encountered “a sparsely decorated warehouse with a scattering of plastic props, a small bouncy castle, and some backdrops pinned against the walls.” Some children cried when they saw it, the outlet noted, and things were so bad that someone called Scotland police.
Actor Paul Connell, who was hired to work the event, said even he was disappointed at the display. “My heart sank looking around … I just felt sad because I was aware of how many kids were going to be coming through,” he told STV News. “We were told to hand the kids a couple of jelly beans and a quarter cup of lemonade at the end.”
Photos of the event and customer reactions went viral on social media.
“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,” one X post with more than 19 million views said.
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
Another post showed an event employee posing as an Oompa Loompa.
“The Oompa Loompa from the knock off Wonka land experience looks like she’s running a literal meth lab and is seriously questioning the life choices up until this point. If you scripted this, I would say it was too on the nose,” the image caption said.
The Oompa Loompa from the knock off Wonka land experience looks like she’s running a literal meth lab and is seriously questioning the life choices up until this point. If you scripted this, I would say it was too on the nose pic.twitter.com/WwkGO8Hjck
— Disappointed Optimist (@disappoptimism) February 27, 2024
The so-called “immersive experience,” which was not affiliated with the newest Warner Bros. movie “Wonka,” was put on by the event company House of Illuminati. It has since apologized after the images and videos went viral, calling the whole thing a “very stressful and frustrating day.”
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“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 realize we probably should have canceled first thing this morning instead,” the organization said.
It also promised to refund all purchasers for their tickets.