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Low reported severity Media Coverage

Visitors to a Halloween event in Raisio, Finland, say its AI-generated adverts misrepresented it; the organiser offered a free return visit but no refunds

A paid Halloween event (Halloweenkylä) opened on Saturday 24 October 2026 in the car park of a shopping centre in Raisio, south-west Finland, with tickets at 20 euros. It had been marketed with AI-generated images: the event website carried a note that some marketing images were produced with AI, and Yle reports that the advertising images were made with AI. About 3,000 people visited on the opening Saturday, according to Yle. Visitors wrote on the event's and the shopping centre's Facebook pages that the event did not match the expectations the AI images had created, describing a sparse car-park area with few decorations and actors; one wrote of travelling from Rauma to Turku only to be disappointed, and many demanded their money back. The organising company's owner said AI images were used because the event was being held for the first time and that with hindsight different images might have been better. The organiser offered disappointed visitors a free return visit and added effects and actors, but said ticket money would not be refunded. The AI images were removed from the event website but, according to Yle, remained on its Facebook page. Yle reports that the shopping centre was also disappointed. The organiser says the event also received positive feedback.

AI system
Unidentified image tool
Occurred
24 Oct 2026
Reported
25 October 2026
Event location
Finland
What the AI did
Communicated with the person
Reported harm
Financial Loss
Whose AI use
Someone else’s AI use
Setting
Everyday life
Evidence
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources, 3 underlying accounts
8 claims: 8 reported. 3 open questions
People reported harmed
Not reliably quantifiable from the sources

AI system as recorded: AI-generated marketing images for the Halloweenkylä event; the tool used is not named

Reported harm

Visitors say they paid 20 euros for a Halloween event whose AI-generated adverts did not match what they found, and many demanded refunds; the organiser refused refunds and offered a free return visit instead.

Outcome

Ongoing

The organiser offered a free return visit to disappointed visitors, made changes to lighting, effects, entrance and actors, removed the AI images from the website and said ticket money would not be refunded. No complaint to a consumer authority is reported in the sources read.

What remains unknown

  • How many visitors asked for refunds or took up the free return visit.
  • Which AI tool produced the images and exactly which images visitors saw before buying tickets.
  • Whether any visitor complained to a consumer authority.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: supported. The event's own website noted that some marketing images were produced with AI, the organiser explained to Yle why AI images were used, and Yle reports that the advertising images were made with AI. Visitors who bought tickets after seeing the adverts say the event did not match the expectations those AI images created and demanded refunds, which the organiser refused while offering a free return visit. The AI tool is not named; whether visitors would have been disappointed by conventional images of the same kind is not established.

8 claims: 8 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported The 20-euro Halloween event, held from Saturday 24 October 2026 in a Raisio shopping-centre car park, was marketed with AI-generated images.

Causal attribution. The event website itself noted AI-made marketing images, and Yle states the advertising images were made with AI.

  • yle.fi(opens in new tab) supports · Finnish
    'Lauantaista lähtien järjestettyä, 20 euron hintaista tapahtumaa on markkinoitu tekoälykuvilla, jotka eivät ole vastanneet todellisuutta.'
  • karjalainen.fi(opens in new tab) supports · Finnish
    'Verkkosivujen alalaidassa on maininta, että jotkin markkinointikuvat on tuotettu tekoälyllä.'
  • yle.fi(opens in new tab) supports · Finnish
    'Raisiolaisen tapahtuman mainoskuvat tehtiin tekoälyllä.'
Reported Visitors say the event did not match the expectations created by the AI images, and many demanded their money back.

Causal attribution. Visitors' accounts of the link between the AI adverts and their disappointment.

  • yle.fi(opens in new tab) supports · Finnish
    'Kävijöiden mukaan 20 euron tapahtuma ei vastannut tekoälykuvien luomia odotuksia.'; 'Moni on vaatinut järjestäjältä rahojaan takaisin.'
  • karjalainen.fi(opens in new tab) supports · Finnish
    'Sosiaalisessa mediassa käydyn keskustelun mukaan tekoälykuvat ovat luoneet asiakkaille väärän kuvan Halloweenkylästä.'
Reported Visitors wrote that the adverts had led them to expect a dark, frightening haunted village, and one wrote of travelling from Rauma to Turku only to be disappointed.

Causal attribution. Individual visitors' Facebook comments as quoted by the press.

  • iltalehti.fi(opens in new tab) supports · Finnish
    'Mainosten perusteella kuvittelin, että kyseessä olisi amerikkalaistyylinen pimeä kauhukylä, jossa näyttelijät pelottelevat ja kävijöillä on jotain konkreettista haastetta.'
  • karjalainen.fi(opens in new tab) supports · Finnish
    'Raumalta Turkuun ja ainoastaan pettymyksen vuoksi.'
Reported About 3,000 people visited the event on the opening Saturday.

Causal attribution. An estimate of attendance, not of harmed people.

Reported The organiser said AI images were used because the event was held for the first time, offered disappointed visitors a free return visit, and said ticket money would not be refunded.

Causal attribution. The organiser's own explanation and response.

  • yle.fi(opens in new tab) supports · Finnish
    'Järjestäjä perustelee tekoälykuvien käyttöä sillä, että tapahtuma järjestettiin ensi kertaa.'; 'Se tarjoaa uuden käynnin, mutta ei palauta rahoja.'; 'Valitettavasti meillä ei ole näillä näkymin sellaista mahdollisuutta, että voitaisiin antaa rahoja takaisin.'
  • iltalehti.fi(opens in new tab) supports · Finnish
    'Järjestäjät tarjoavat hyvityksenä kaikille edellisenä päivänä tapahtumassa vierailleille maksuttoman uuden käynnin.'
Reported The AI images were removed from the event website but remained visible on its Facebook page.

Causal attribution. Yle's observation.

  • yle.fi(opens in new tab) supports · Finnish
    'Tekoälykuvat on poistettu tapahtuman verkkosivuilta, mutta Facebook-sivuilla ne näkyvät edelleen.'
Reported The shopping centre hosting the event was also disappointed.

Causal attribution. The host's reaction as Yle reports it.

Reported The organiser said the event also received positive feedback and that the organisers did not want anyone to be disappointed.

Causal attribution. Contrary and mitigating evidence from the organiser.

Sources

4 sources inspected, from 3 underlying accounts. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Read in Finnish on 2026-10-30; translation by the research agent, an AI. Yle Varsinais-Suomi article published 26 October 2026, with the organiser's and the shopping centre's comments. Applies to s1.

Read in Finnish on 2026-10-30; translation by the research agent, an AI. Iltalehti article of 25 October 2026 quoting visitors' Facebook comments and its own interview with the organiser. Applies to s2.

Read in Finnish on 2026-10-30; translation by the research agent, an AI. Uutissuomalainen article (Karjalainen) published 25 October 2026, describing the event website and quoting Facebook comments and the shopping centre's post. Applies to s3.

Read in Finnish on 2026-10-30; translation by the research agent, an AI. Yle article published 27 October 2026 on the advertising images; same outlet and organiser as s1. Applies to s4.

Event countries: Finland. Affected-person countries: Unknown. Court countries: Unknown.

The event was held in the car park of a shopping centre in Raisio, Finland. Visitors' home countries are not stated; one visitor's comment refers to travelling from Rauma to Turku, but residence is not recorded as a country fact.

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-30: Published as a concrete consumer harm from AI-generated advertising that an operator acknowledged: the event's website and the organiser identified the marketing images as AI-made, visitors who paid for tickets say the event did not match those images, and refunds were refused. Three outlets report the visitors' complaints and the organiser's response.

People described

Visitors, including families, who bought 20-euro tickets to a Halloween event in Raisio after seeing its AI-generated advertising

People reported harmed in this case

Not reliably quantifiable from the sources

Yle reports about 3,000 visitors on the opening Saturday and says many demanded refunds; no number of dissatisfied or refused visitors is given. Visitor totals are not harm counts, so the count is unquantified with zero placeholders.

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

Tags

#ai-generated-advertising#event-misrepresentation#refund-refused#consumer

Cite this case

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

APA

NOPE. (2026). Visitors to a Halloween event in Raisio, Finland, say its AI-generated adverts misrepresented it; the organiser offered a free return visit but no refunds. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2026-raisio-finland-halloween-event-advertised-with-ai-images-visitors-say-it-did-not-match-and-demand-refunds

BibTeX

@misc{2026_raisio_finland_halloween_event_advertised_with_ai_images_visitors_say_it_did_not_match_and_demand_refunds,
  title = {Visitors to a Halloween event in Raisio, Finland, say its AI-generated adverts misrepresented it; the organiser offered a free return visit but no refunds},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2026-raisio-finland-halloween-event-advertised-with-ai-images-visitors-say-it-did-not-match-and-demand-refunds}
}

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