Non-existent restaurant in the top of TripAdvisor: how a journalist with the help of social networks manipulates the public

Uba Butler is a Vice journalist. The Briton became famous a year ago by inventing a non-existent restaurant and turning it into the best institution in London according to TripAdvisor in six months. In addition, Butler managed to appear at the Paris fashion week, posing as fashion designer Giorgio Peviani, and also sent three of his doubles to television. And everyone believed him.

Photo: instagram.com/oobahs

Fake restaurant

While working to promote his defunct restaurant, Butler posted fake reviews and posted tempting photos of dishes he created from whatever was on hand. Butler told everyone who wanted to book a table that there were absolutely no empty seats left - and this only fueled the excitement around the fake establishment.

It took six months to promote the restaurant and get to the top of TripAdvisor - the non-existent establishment became the best restaurant in London.

As a result, Uba Butler opened a “restaurant” for one night, feeding customers ready-made dinners from the supermarket.

Appearance at Paris Fashion Week

Butler noted that on many fake items on the markets there is a Georgio Peviani tag: a brand with “zakos” under Armani. The journalist did not know who was doing these things, so he himself became a fashion designer, Giorgio Peviani, and went under this name to Paris fashion week, tells Tjournal.

To this end, a Vice employee created a website and brand business cards, bought several items on the market from Georgio Peviani, and received accreditation in France. In Paris, he talked to several true fashion designers: Butler told them that he was successful, but he is still little known, so Vice does the stuff about him.

If you thought streetwear was a religion, Giorgio Peviani would be a terrible sinner, says Uba Butler.

On the first day, the journalist accidentally got to a party of the Italians, and “Peviani” did not pretend to be too successful as a person from the same country. In the following days, a fake fashion designer showed jeans from the market to real fashion designers, met the editor of the British Vogue and showed up on Instagram on the popular model Raquel Minelli. The result was an invitation to a private display of the collection of the famous designer Veronique Leroy.

Returning from France, Butler found the real Giorgio Peviani. It turned out to be a businessman by the name of Adam, who moved to the UK from Zambia.

Twins on television

After the publication of the publication about the fake restaurant, Butler was hit by a stream of attention from his fellow journalists from a wide variety of publications, both British and foreign. For some time the guy diligently went to a TV show and participated in an interview on Skype. However, at some point, the Briton was fed up with it, and so the idea arose for a new prank, he said in his article on Vice, writes Medialeaks.

The essence of the new draw was to send reporters to their counterparts, who could be much better than Uba, to cope with the interview. At first, the journalist doubted that his colleagues would lead the rally, but then he decided to carry it out. And the first step was the casting, in which the Briton selected for himself the best candidates. The main conditions were the presence of bleached hair, a willingness to lie to journalists and the ability to show Butler in a good light.

The first fake Butler who spoke to reporters was an actor from Wales named Tom. As Uba says, the boy is a bit like him, but with the difference that his features "do not look as if they were a painted child."

We know what you think: “But this guy looks completely different!” Yes, it is. However, BBC One correspondents who came to Ube's home to shoot the plot did not express their suspicions at all (if they had any at all). It may have been influenced by the fact that Butler and his twin rehearsed a conversation with reporters for a long time so that the actor looked as convincing as possible. And it seems that it worked.

“When the BBC thinks they're interviewing you and you're sitting on a roof ten meters away, shirtless.”

The story about Butler was soon released on the TV channel, but all the footage of Tom was cut out. Uba later learned from BBC One representatives that the authors simply did not find his double’s lines interesting. Later, two more doubles appeared - a male model, whom Uba found on Instagram, and an interview with him actually came out (no one suspected anything) and another actor, who this time perfectly learned everything that needed to be told to journalists.

Prank even inspired Ubu to create his site for finding twins in the UK for the sake of doing some particular work. However, it is possible that the large-scale rally served as a promotional campaign of the service.

Butler has been working in Vice since 2016. For materials, he followed 10 Life-Lifting Life Hacks to learn how his life would change, he held parties in the London Underground carriages and became a spinner to “better understand spinners.”

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