Oobah Butler's Fictional Restaurant Prank For TripAdvisor

Oobah Butler dan The Shed at Dulwich (dok. Vice)

Continued from VOI Series, "Prank! Prang! Prong!" In the article "Tracing the Origins of Prank in the Cultures of the World", we have already seen how prank culture started. The culture continues to grow. An English writer, Oobah Butler is one who has perhaps succeeded in practicing pranks with great success. This is the story.

If there was a best prank crowning, maybe Oobah Butler would be the one to lift the trophy. This article is about the story of Oobah and his awesome pranks. Not only because the business took up to seven months. The results of the pranks were special, exploding all over the world. Through this prank, Oobah is not just for fun. Because, he tried to prove one important thing.

The prank it did was trick a TripAdvisor travel guide site. Through his pranks, Oobah tries to prove that Londoners and tourists are often deceived by a review or review of a place listed on TripAdvisor.

Oobah's worries arose when he worked freelance to write fake reviews on several restaurants on TripAdvisor. Every review he made was valued at £ 10 even though he had never eaten at the restaurant.

The Shed at Dulwich (TripAdvisor / VICE capture screen documentation)

Over time, Oobah became curious about the management of the TripAdvisor site, which was dominated by fake reviews. The more positive reviews a restaurant gets, of course it has the potential to increase its rating. Finally, the idea arose to establish a fictional restaurant to test people's understanding in London.

For seven months Oobah wrote a review for a fictional restaurant called The Shed at Dulwich on the TripAdvisor site. He never mentioned the address of the restaurant. However, The Shed's logo and website are so convincingly crafted that the diner feels very real.

Anyone who wants to eat there is required to make a reservation in advance before coming. Being so adept at lying, Oobah was even able to describe the restaurant in detail. He described his restaurant as being in a backyard in the southern part of London.

There are four keywords that Oobah wrote to describe the atmosphere of his fictional restaurant, namely eating outside, weird, comfortable (homey) and to make it more convincing, Oobah emphasized that food made is only available through special orders, aka appointment only. .

"Only by agreement. So, there is no address or location marker because we do not want the exclusivity of our restaurant and our place to attract many people," wrote Oobah in the journal Vice, published December 6, 2017.

Answering his restlessness

Despite deceiving through restaurants and fictional reviews, Oobah did not in the least take advantage of the thousands of people who were fooled. Instead, he wanted to prove his fictional restaurant could rank first on TripAdvisor thanks to fake reviews.

The Shed at Dulwich officially opened in April 2017. At that time, the fictional restaurant's debut was still at the bottom of the 18,149 TripAdvisor ranking.

Various attempts were made by Oobah to attract people's attention through fake reviews of The Shed at Dulwich. Not only positive reviews of the fictional restaurant, Oobah even includes a number of menus and photos to further convince readers that this place is real.

At the end of August or four months since debut, The Shed at Dulwich entered the ranks of the 156 most popular restaurants in London. This made him accept many reservations from people. To the point, if someone wants to reserve a place, Oobah always says that the restaurant is fully booked for weeks to come.

"There are hundreds and thousands of celebrities and influencers who want to eat at this restaurant. Even though this is all fiction," Oobah said in an interview.

For seven months, Oobah conducted a prank and fictitious review process for his fake restaurant. The Shed at Dulwich finally managed to become the first and most popular restaurant in London.

The goal was achieved. However, Oobah does not want to be caught up in the lies and mistakes of Londoners about his fictional restaurant. Oobah finally opened a reservation for several people to come to The Shed at Dulwich.

"So, I invite people to be in chairs that I hastily trim outside my house and they think that it is really the best restaurant in London based solely on the ranking from TripAdvisor," said Oobah Butler, through his writing. in Vice.

The Shed at Dulwich (TripAdvisor / VICE capture screen documentation)

Not only one or two people who feel cheated by the positive reviews of the fictional restaurant The Shed at Dulwich. Oobah managed to trick social media and news lines in London.

The Times newspaper, the BBC, and a number of foreign media were also deceived by the first ranking achieved by The Shed at Dulwich as the most popular restaurant in London. They were lied to by positive reviews of an unreal place to eat.

"That's a very naughty thing to do," Good Moring Britain host Susanna Reid told Oobah in an interview.

The Oobah stunt with its reviews and fictional restaurants is one of the grandest prank acts. The pranks are made with incredibly neat planning and execution. But most importantly of all his kibul accomplishments, Oobah manages to address concerns about how much influence TripAdvisor has on people's perceptions of a place's popularity.

TripAdvisor's ranking system has also proven weak. Imagine, the fake reviews he made were able to dominate the ranking on TripAdvisor. Site guide to speak up. Through a company spokesperson, TripAdvisor said the manipulations carried out by Oobah could inspire parties with fraudulent goals.

"This is not a good example if it is done in the real world. However, it opens my eyes to people who want to try to manipulate business ratings," said spokesperson for TripAdvisor, Tara Liberman, as written by Forbes.