In 2017, Oobah Butler, a culinary con artist wanted to see how easily people trust what they see and read on the internet. Initially it started when Oobah Butler, also a writer, wrote fake reviews for restaurants he had not been to, earning £10 per review.
In the world of misinformation, Oobah Butler wanted to see how far can people go without verifying legitimacy. He went on to create a fake restaurant, The Shed at Dulwich and turned it into the top-rated restaurant in London, using fake reviews on TripAdvisor.
Oobah Butler had his plans in place. He started The Shed at Dulwich and made it "appointment only". With an ambiguous location, Oobah went on to prepare a menu to make it real.
The challenging part was making the photos. But Oobah Butler's genius mind did not have much difficulty improvising and creating fake photos either. He photographed his foot in a way that it looks like steak, used bleach tablets became scallops and shaving cream was presented as whipped cream.
To make the fake endeavour into a top-rated London restaurant, Oobah Butler got his friends on board who rated the restaurant 5-stars and wrote about the hidden gem that only allows guests through appointment.
Thanks to the raving reviews, The Shed at Dulwich was quickly gaining prominence. It was among the top 1500 restaurants within the second month and among the top 300 after four months.
Finally, as more and more people wanted to experience the underrated gem in London, it secured the No 1 spot in the sixth month. With such success, albeit fake, media houses began to request for interviews and people were ready to wait for months to get an appointment.
However, no one double checked the fake restaurant's existence. To manage the craze, Oobah Butler hosted an actual dinner in his background with ready-made meals and still managed to fool people.
After few months, Oobah Butler came out in the clear that his London restaurant was actually fake. In December 2017, Oobah revealed the truth which made TripAdvisor take the listing down.
Oobah Butler's experiment was eye-opening and exposed how fake social media can be. The social experiment reiterated the need to recheck all facts and information that users come across on the internet and social media.
For more updates, join/follow our WhatsApp, Telegram and YouTube channels.