Daily Inspiration: Marketing & PR – “Be careful what you do within the boundaries of your imagination!”

“Be careful what you do within the boundaries of your imagination!”– Futurist Jim Carroll

AI has had its Fyre Festival moment! It was bound to happen.

The Fyre Festival? Remember that? The wildly exotic Caribbean music festival that promised so much and yet delivered so little! Remember the promotional clip?

An unmitigated disaster, what was delivered was vastly different. The gap was so wide that there was not just one full-length documentary, but two – in addition to countless other videos, reports, and investigations. It resulted in charges and jail time for the founder – for fraud.

With that, I bring you the Willy Wonka Chocolate Experience. I’m sure you’ve seen news of it – it went rather viral last week, being the first widely watched instance of a vast difference between what was promised vs. what was delivered with the promise part being based upon AI.

AI? Maybe the badly worded Website with obvious errors should have been a clue. What is catcagating anyways?

A quick summary for you if you have not tuned in to this week’s viral sensation.

A Willy Wonka themed event that promised “a place where chocolate dreams become reality” has been lampooned all over social media after attendees say they feel mislead.

The House of Illuminati’s Willy’s Chocolate Experience, which was held at Box Hub Warehouse on Feb. 24, in Glasgow, Scotland, promised an enchanted garden, giant sweets and a visual spectacle. The ads for the event on the website show AI generated gardens of candy as well as a poster generated by AI with misspelled promotional slogans, including: “Cartchy tuns, exarserdray lollipops” and “a pasadise of sweet teats.”

According to Paul Connell, an actor and comedian who was one of the actors hired to play Willy Wonka , attendees were instead presented with, a single jelly bean each, a quarter-cup of lemonade and an evil chocolatier named “The Unknown,” who lives in the walls. There was no chocolate at the event.

AI ads vs. reality: Willy’s Chocolate Experience ‘an absolute shambles’
28 February 2024, Postmedia Breaking News 

How bad was it? This bad!

In reality, families stepped into a dull and poorly decorated warehouse that would make Roald Dahl roll in his grave. Parents felt hoodwinked, children cried, and people were angry. It was so underwhelming that police were called in and refunds were demanded.

Memes about a disastrous Willy Wonka-themed event are taking over the internet
29 February 2024, Business Insider

The event certainly promised a lot though – the Web site conjured up a magical voyage to a mystical land full of wonderful awesomeness – with images generated by AI.

The reality when parents and children walked in was a little – um – different.

The actors and actresses playing their assigned roles didn’t have a good time of it. Can anyone be sadder than this Oompa Loopa?

I feel bad for them – freelance actors, they simply responded to the opportunity for a gig, not realizing that they were about to enter the wrong side of their 15 minutes of fame. At least many have taken it on the chin, taking to social media to tell their side of the story.

Not only was the promotional material AI-generated, but so too was the script they were expected to perform

Some of the actors hired for the event have been speaking out with their suspicions that AI played a role in devising the chaotic script.

Paul Connell, an actor and stand-up comedian hired to play Willy Wonka at the event in Glasgow, Scotland, told the Independent the script provided was “15 pages of AI-generated gibberish” and required him to say “mad things.”

“The bit that got me was where I had to say, ‘There is a man we don’t know his name. We know him as the Unknown. This Unknown is an evil chocolate maker who lives in the walls,” Connell told the newspaper.

Kirsty Paterson, who played an Oompla-Loompa at the event, also suspected the script might have had a helping hand from AI.

Actor hired for disastrous Willy Wonka-style event says the bizarre script was ’15 pages of AI-generated gibberish’
29 February 2024, Business Insider

Who was behind the event? Seems there’s a bit of a track record here!

It’s as bad as you think! The man behind a “shambolic” Willy Wonka event which failed to deliver its “realm of wonder” has been unmasked, after parents fumed over shelling out £35 for a tour of a sparsely decorated warehouse

The man responsible for a shambolic “Willy Wonka experience” in Glasgow has been unmasked as a repeat offender who also left parents raging when he cancelled a Santa’s Grotto event.

Self-hailed author Billy Coull, who relied on artificial intelligence to self-publish 17 novels on Amazon in 2023, is listed as the director of the House of Illuminati. His company promises to “transform” humdrum locations, turning them into “immersive environments” which “transport guests into a realm of wonder”.

Willy Wonka organiser unmasked as raging parents demand refund for ‘shambolic’ event
29 February 2024, Mirror.co.uk

Let’s visit his website, shall we? It would be charitable to simply suggest that he got a little too exuberant with the use of AI in what he promises with his event company.

Extraordinary events and immersive experiences! How extraordinary? How immersive? Well, it is suggested that they will be unforgettable! I guess so!

(As an aside, this particular image reminds me of an AI-generated image I used in my Daily inspiration some months ago!)

The Web site documents the fact that there is certainly a vast number of wonderful experiences to be had! Mystique galas, Secret-Soirees, and Enchanted Retreats. Personally, I’m rather intrigued by the Techno-Mythical event.

Maybe he had good intentions, but it’s also pretty clear he went overboard with what he imagined was possible and what was possible. There is a flashing warning sign here for everyone utilizing AI today! And maybe the entire situation is a metaphor for the fact that in a nutshell, we are seeing a vast gap in the expectations that people have for AI today – and what is possible. I shared this on social media the other day.

Of course, the Internet being the Internet, there is already a petition demanding that Glasgow City Council take whatever steps necessary to bring the attraction back.

Thousands are signing a petition to bring back the ‘failed’ Willy Wonka experience, whose artificial intelligence controversy left families coughing up £35 for a jelly bean and quarter cup of limeade

‘Shambolic’ Willy Wonka event sees thousands sign petition for it to reopen
29 February 2024, dailystar.co.uk

Oh, and one last thing – as with everything, an episode of The Simpsons predicted the shambles.

There’s a lesson in here for all of us.

We just need to stop laughing first.