Absolutely LIVID at the BBC

[ChilledMK]

I took the kids to the BBC Earth Experience in London yesterday. Traveled all the way from Milton Keynes. It looked the perfect day out for the kids. It was billed as an ‘interactive experience’ and a ‘transformative audio visible experience’.

I feel like I have been robbed. £100+ to walk around a big room with disjointed images showing random vignettes of animals and rainforests on cinema screens. No seating. No narrative. No touching. And most importantly no interaction. Looking at the website I can tell they have done some very clever camera trickery to make it more than it is.

I have never felt so angry leaving an ‘event’. I can’t believe they think it is acceptable to charge £32 to walk around a big room with a montage of their documentaries available on Netflix. No bad word to say about the staff or security, but the people at the BBC who planned this event are taking the absolute piss. Then to make it worse as we walk into a tat filled gift shop this almost half the space of the event, there is a projection of the earth saying it is my responsibility to make sure all the animals don’t die of climate change…

Would I be unreasonable to request a full refund? The kids were bored out of their mind and we didn’t stay the full hour.

But all those immersive things are basically the same idea - just projected images in a big room. There were no real Van Gogh paintings in the 'Van Gogh' exhibition, for example. If you want to see real paintings you go to a gallery- if you want to see real animals or other natural history artefacts you go to a museum. Not sure what you were expecting really.

I went to the Van Gogh one and that was shit, so I can only imagine how disappointing this one must be. I steer clear of all the immersive stuff on screens. If it was immersive theatre with actors it would be probably be better.

Always worth checking reviews before you spend money on an event.
This one really doesn’t have many decent reviews.
Its an immerse yourself experience. Not everyone’s cup of tea.

Interesting! I also went yesterday and thought it was EXCELLENT.

Fantastic sound, images, set up.

No it’s not interactive. Yes I would say it was immersive.

We stayed two hours with four friends who all said the same.

I would imagine it's the double standard....

It’s absolutely false advertising, even all the promotional images are CGI rendered. It’s not okay, it’s literally a huge company defrauding working families of their money.

In which case, is it also worth complaining to the Advertising Standards Authority?

☝Absolutely this. If you feel they are ripping people off and that the description of the event is inaccurate DO NOT COMPLAIN exclusively to the BBC.
Their complaints are handled internally, in secrecy and they are never found wanting.... Completely inept, corrupt organisation now.

Take it to Trading Standards as misrepresentation and plaster it all over SM to warn others. Shameful they are ripping people off using the BBC name.

It's NOT run by the BBC.

I just read a whole load of reviews on Google, seems to get an average of 3.7 out of 5 and while some people felt like the OP there were also loads of people giving it 5 stars and saying how much they enjoyed it.

I don’t think you can say it was a clear rip off and you want your money back when there are others who seem completely satisfied. Sounds like it just wasn’t for you.

Reading what 2bazookas pasted I'd expect to get exactly what you got, OP. A load of screens showing BBC footage. I'm not sure what grounds you have for complaining?

Soz that perhaps should have been Advertising Standards but really anyone you can complain to just don't expect much from the BBC.

I mean, this?

Be a bit like complaining to Morrisons about Asda tbh.

Not really - Morrisons haven't licensed Asda's branding and used it in their stores.

Total rubbish and a Waste Of Money. Why don't they just bring some elephants in to show them off and make people want to save them, instead of all this "immersive" stuff? £30 to look at a TV screen is a rip-off.

Why don't they just bring some elephants in

It's not run by the BBC! It's run by LiveNation, an event company that are using BBC images. A bit like the Van Gough one wasn't run by him either.....

I do think more and more companies are milking families for money these days by appearing to offer a solution to our collective boredom. We're all looking for something to do with our kids tk keep them occupied now that we've lost so much green space, woods to walk in, the roads are filled with cars so we can't let them out to play and there are no youth clubs anymore for older to kids to hang out together.

Like for example the 'pumpkin picking' patches in the autumn total rip off all of it.

Traveled all the way from Milton Keynes

Sorry, but as a Scottish person this made me LOL. It's an hour and a half!

Same here!

Forgive the basic comparison, I was trying to get the point across to people who didn’t seem to be able to understand that it isn’t run by the BBC. I thought simpler was better.

Funnily enough I was thinking about taking dd1 to see this and my niece went and said it wasn’t worth it at all, said it was very disappointing and she wishes she hadn’t wasted her money.
So we didn’t book in the end.

@Keepthetowel agree with you about the Van Gogh one. Last immersive event I probably will ever go to.

@GoodVibesHere you are spot on I think about why companies are seeking to make money out of parents wanting to find something for their children.

I was about to text a friend saying we should book a day out together with the kids to see this. The ads were very slick. It even said narrated by no other than DA. If there were no narration at all then surely it's false advertising?

Yes, I take the point that it isn't run by The BBC, but The BBC are effectively endorsing it by licensing their brand - it's called 'The BBC Earth Experience' - some people will (misguidedly perhaps) trust the 'BBC' name and expect value for money. A copy and paste complaint to both organisations would do no harm. The BBC's reputation isn't brilliant at the moment - they need to be wary of their PR.