Analysis: Willy Wonka pop-up in Glasgow a reminder of ‘buyer beware’
Guests attending a Willy Wonka pop-up experience in Glasgow expected to step into a world of pure imagination, but ended up needing to imagine nearly everything.
Willy’s Chocolate Experience
You may have seen the videos, memes, and altogether glorious online fixation with Willy’s Chocolate Experience, a pop-up attraction in Glasgow, Scotland inspired by “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.”
After being promised an “extraordinary” journey, guests at Willy’s Chocolate Experience encountered a comically disappointing attraction. Firsthand accounts from guests and employees nearly defy comprehension, each new morsel of information more bizarre than the last: an empty warehouse venue, practically no décor, a masked villain, a single jellybean as a parting gift …
We’re not here to recap Willy’s Chocolate Experience. Plenty have already done so (and Time Magazine has a concise summary for those unfamiliar). We are here, however, to examine how a prospective customer might have been able to realize what they were walking into before it was too late — and what you can look for as you plan future outings for your own family and friends.
Telltale Signs of Disaster Ahead
The House of Illuminati, the company responsible for Willy’s Chocolate Experience, seemingly bit off more chocolate than it could chew.
This company is not affiliated with Warner Bros., the studio behind the recent “Wonka” film, which might be red flag #1 prompting potential ticket buyers to question “Is this thing legit?” and “Does it have copyright clearance?”
No Proof of Prior Experience
The House of Illuminati apparently specializes in immersive attractions … “apparently” being the key word. The company’s website describes House of Illuminati’s services at length, but fails to mention any specific projects. There are no photographs from previous events in the company’s portfolio nor descriptions of such events if they occurred — only illustrated visuals and broad, general statements. The illustrations also look … well, we’ll get to that in a moment.
Perhaps House of Illuminati is a new enterprise and truly has no prior work to show. Everybody starts somewhere, but even if that’s the case, House of Illuminati’s website does nothing to provide the prospective consumer with any vote of confidence.
Poor User Interface
The House of Illuminati website is a remarkable display of a lack of self-awareness. For starters, the color of text displayed on the page is nearly the same color as the background, rendering everything unreadable unless the user highlights every paragraph. And then there’s the name … are we sold on that name? The House of Illuminati?
A.I. Suspicions
The webpage for Willy’s Chocolate Experience itself continues the oddities. Again void of photographs from Glasgow, all visual depictions of the attraction are illustrations containing the glazed, elastic giveaways of being artificial intelligence (A.I.) designs. Not to mention words are just … misspelled. “Encherining Entertainment”? “Cartchy tuns”?
Sure enough, the filename for an image (pictured below) is: “DALL·E-2024-01-30-09.50.54-Imagine-a-scene-where-fantasy-and-reality-merge-seamlessly.-In-the-foreground-a-grand-interactive-gala-is-taking-place-filled-with-elegant-guests-i-1024×585.” That is the actual filename. They used the A.I. design program DALL·E to manufacture the image and named the file as the prompt they fed into DALL·E. By the way, these webpages are all still active.
Beyond images, if we were to assume House of Illuminati also used A.I. throughout the website’s text and read it through this lens, we can pick up on more A.I. signatures, like hyperbolic adjectives and poor sentence structure. For example, Illuminati tells clients: “Witness the seamless integration of local nuances and global elegance, creating a harmonious tapestry that defines the House of Illuminati experience.”
On one page, the website designer accidentally left in either an A.I. prompt, or a description of what they intended to place there later.
Universal Orlando joked about Willy’s Chocolate Experience on X. Alongside a photo of the resort’s Toothsome Chocolate Emporium & Savory Feast Kitchen, Universal posted, “No AI here” with a sneaky-smiling emoji.
As the A.I. debate continues about whether (or when) to use A.I.-generated content vs. images or text created by human artists and writers, this situation seems to put a point on the scoreboard for the humans.
Malicious or Mistake?
Sometimes, advertised pop-up events never happen at all. Scam? Misunderstanding? It’s hard to say, but it’s disappointing nonetheless. One of our former editors was once invited to a bounce house media event and upon arriving to the event location, no one was there. Later, the host company didn’t return their emails.
Several Christmases ago, billboards displayed throughout Charlotte, N.C. invited holiday shoppers to “meet Rudolph” at the local mall. “Rudolph” was merely a large plush toy lying unceremoniously on the floor at the entrance to Santa’s photo op. Excited children were deflated upon discovering the false advertising (not speaking from experience there or anything).
We often add the following text to the end of Attractions Magazine stories about pop-up attractions and experiences:
Disclaimer: We do not endorse the organizers of events we write about. Even with the best of intentions, many announced events end up not happening. Be sure to check the return policy and the legitimacy of the organizers before giving them any financial information.
In most cases, we report news. But when we don’t, we tell you upfront in the article title, like this story labeled as analysis or others categorized as a review or a report.
Penelope Toothsome Would Never Stand For This
As we all wait for the inevitable collection of documentaries and YouTube essays sure to emerge in the aftermath of Willy’s Chocolate Experience in Glasgow, enjoy our coverage of an establishment that lives up to its description, the aforementioned Toothsome Chocolate Emporium:
