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NOPE
Low reported severity Media Coverage

Families paid for a Glasgow Willy Wonka-themed event advertised with images that appeared AI-generated and found a near-empty warehouse

A Willy Wonka-inspired 'Chocolate Experience' run by House of Illuminati in a Glasgow warehouse on 24 February 2024 promised oversized lollipops and a paradise of sweet treats, promoted with candy-coloured images on its website. Ticket-holders who paid £35 a ticket found a sparsely decorated warehouse; a mother who bought five tickets said it was nothing like what was described, and visitors described young children crying. The event was cancelled that afternoon, police were called as attendees demanded refunds, and the company apologised and promised full refunds. NBC News found the website images could not be traced elsewhere by reverse image search and that some bore hallmarks of AI creation such as nonsensical lettering; other outlets called the adverts AI-generated. The organiser did not confirm AI use to NBC News.

AI system
Unidentified image tool (suspected)
Occurred
24 Feb 2024
Reported
27 February 2024
Event location
United Kingdom
What the AI did
Communicated with the person
Reported harm
Financial LossPsychological Distress
Whose AI use
Someone else’s AI use
Setting
Everyday life
Evidence
AI involvement suspected · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources
5 claims: 5 reported. 3 open questions
People reported harmed
At least 2 people

AI system as recorded: An unidentified image-generation tool suspected of producing the event's promotional website images (per NBC News' examination); outlets also describe the adverts' text as AI-generated

What Happened

The advertising. House of Illuminati, a company incorporated three months earlier, advertised 'Willy's Chocolate Experience' in Glasgow with promises of extraordinary props, oversized lollipops and a paradise of sweet treats, illustrated with candy-coloured images on its website. NBC News reported that the images could not be found elsewhere online by reverse image search and that some bore known hallmarks of AI creation, notably nonsensical lettering; it said AI-generated media may have played a key role. The Evening Standard said the experience was advertised using AI-scripted posters and adverts, and Rolling Stone said the art and descriptions were AI-generated. Two actors told NBC News that the script they were given appeared AI-generated.

The event. On Saturday 24 February 2024 ticket-holders who had paid £35 a ticket found a sparsely decorated warehouse with a few props. A mother who had bought five tickets said it was nothing like what was described and not worth the price; another parent said the children had been promised chocolate fountains and received two jelly babies; visitors described young children crying.

Aftermath. The event was cancelled that afternoon and Police Scotland were called as attendees demanded refunds; the police said it was not a police matter but offered advice. The company apologised and promised full refunds. Days later at least one parent had a refund confirmation but no money. The organiser did not respond to NBC News on the use of AI.

Reported harm

According to press reports, families who paid £35 a ticket for a Glasgow Willy Wonka-themed event, advertised with images that NBC News found bore hallmarks of AI generation, found a near-empty warehouse; children were reported crying, the event was cancelled and refunds were promised.

Outcome

Unknown

The event was cancelled on 24 February 2024. Police Scotland attended and said it was not a police matter. House of Illuminati apologised and promised full refunds; at least one parent had a refund confirmation but not the money days later, and attendees formed a Facebook group to pursue refunds. No legal or regulatory action is reported.

What remains unknown

  • Whether the advertising images were AI-generated and with which tool; the organiser has not been reported confirming it.
  • How many tickets were sold and how many families attended.
  • Whether every ticket-holder was refunded.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: suspected. NBC News found that the images promoting the event on its website could not be found elsewhere online by reverse image search and that some bore hallmarks of AI creation such as nonsensical lettering, and said AI-generated media may have played a key role; the Evening Standard and Rolling Stone describe the adverts as AI-generated without saying how they established it. Families bought tickets for the experience those materials advertised and found a near-empty warehouse. The organiser did not comment to NBC News, and no source reports an admission or a technical examination beyond NBC's, so the AI generation of the images is suspected.

5 claims: 5 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported A Willy Wonka-inspired 'Chocolate Experience' in Glasgow promised extraordinary props, oversized lollipops and a paradise of sweet treats, promoted with candy-coloured images on its website; ticket-holders paid £35 per ticket and on the weekend of 24 February 2024 found a sparsely decorated warehouse.

Causal attribution. NBC News describes the advertising and the warehouse; the Evening Standard independently gives the price and the warehouse.

  • nbcnews.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    were promised “extraordinary props, oversized lollipops, and a paradise of sweet treats” — all promoted with dreamlike, candy-colored images on its website. ... When ticketholders arrived at the event over the weekend, they instead found a sparsely decorated warehouse
  • au.news.yahoo.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    the £35 a ticket event turned out to be an almost empty Glasgow warehouse decorated with some posters, a rainbow and a bouncy castle.
Reported NBC News reported that the images on the event website could not be found elsewhere online through reverse image searches and that some bore known hallmarks of AI creation, notably nonsensical lettering, and said its examination hints that AI-generated media may have played a key role.

Causal attribution. NBC News' own examination, hedged; the organiser did not comment.

  • nbcnews.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    hints that artificial intelligence-generated media may have played a key role in creating its veneer. ... images shared on the site couldn’t be found elsewhere on the internet through reverse image searches. Some bore known hallmarks of AI creation, most notably strange and nonsensical lettering.
Reported Other outlets also described the advertising as AI-generated: the Evening Standard said the experience was advertised using AI-scripted posters and adverts, and Rolling Stone said the art and descriptions in the advertising were AI-generated.

Causal attribution. Outlets' own statements; neither describes how it established AI generation.

Reported A mother who bought five tickets for her family said the event was absolutely nothing like what was described and not worth £35 per ticket; another parent said the children had been promised a full Wonka experience with chocolate fountains, and visitors described young children crying.

Causal attribution. Attendees' own accounts in two outlets.

  • nbcnews.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    Absolutely nothing like what was described,” said ... purchasing five tickets for her family made a sizable dent in her wallet. ... “It’s just not what I expected at all, and it certainly was not worth £35 per ticket,” she said.
  • au.news.yahoo.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    He said the children had been promised a "full Wonka" experience with chocolate fountains but his children only got two jelly babies and shared a can of limeade. ... "Some families were very, very angry and had little children who were crying.
Reported The event was cancelled on the Saturday afternoon; Police Scotland were called after attendees demanded refunds and said it was not a police matter but offered advice; the organising company apologised and promised full refunds, and at least one parent had a refund confirmation but no money days later.

Causal attribution. Police statement and company statement as reported.

  • nbcnews.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    By Saturday afternoon, the experience had been canceled and local police confirmed to NBC News that they were called to the scene after attendees who felt conned began demanding refunds. ... A spokesperson said in an email that it wasn’t a police matter but that officers offered advice to frustrated attendees. ... has received an email confirming her refund but hasn’t yet received the money in her account
  • au.news.yahoo.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    "We fully apologise for what has happened and will be giving full refunds to each and every person that purchased tickets.

Sources

3 sources inspected. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

NBC News, 28 February 2024 (datePublished in the page metadata), with its own reverse image searches and interviews with attendees and actors; read in full on 2026-10-24 (HTTP 200) by the research agent (an AI); no translation needed. Applies to s1.

Evening Standard report syndicated on Yahoo News Australia, 27 February 2024; read in full on 2026-10-24 (HTTP 200) by the research agent (an AI). Applies to s2.

Rolling Stone, 1 March 2024; read in full on 2026-10-24 (HTTP 200) by the research agent (an AI). Applies to s3.

Event countries: United Kingdom. Affected-person countries: Unknown. Court countries: Unknown.

The event took place in a warehouse in Glasgow, Scotland, and Police Scotland attended. The attendees' residence is not stated, so no affected-person country is recorded. No court is involved.

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-24: Published under the 2026-10-11 operator-published-content ruling: NBC News' own reverse image searches and its observation of AI hallmarks attribute the event's promotional images to AI with stated uncertainty, described parents bought tickets for the experience advertised and found a near-empty warehouse, and the event was cancelled with police called. AI involvement is recorded as suspected.

People described

Families who bought £35 tickets for a Willy Wonka-themed event in Glasgow, including a mother who bought five tickets, and their children

People reported harmed in this case

At least 2 people

0 AI participants · 2 other people harmed

Additional affected people are described without a reliable count.

Two ticket-buying parents are described: a mother who bought five tickets (NBC News) and a father who took his family (Evening Standard). Other attendees and the children are described only in general terms and are not counted.

Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.

Tags

#suspected-ai-images#event-advertising#consumer#refunds#glasgow#scotland

Cite this case

Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.

APA

NOPE. (2026). Families paid for a Glasgow Willy Wonka-themed event advertised with images that appeared AI-generated and found a near-empty warehouse. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2024-glasgow-wonka-themed-event-advertised-with-apparently-ai-generated-images-near-empty-warehouse-refunds

BibTeX

@misc{2024_glasgow_wonka_themed_event_advertised_with_apparently_ai_generated_images_near_empty_warehouse_refunds,
  title = {Families paid for a Glasgow Willy Wonka-themed event advertised with images that appeared AI-generated and found a near-empty warehouse},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2024-glasgow-wonka-themed-event-advertised-with-apparently-ai-generated-images-near-empty-warehouse-refunds}
}

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