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.

Totally agree-although thankfully live in an area with beaches, plenty of country parks etc. Our best days out are at the nearest country park where the only cost is parking and ice creams/coffees. Pumpkin patches are total rip offs and im not sure how anyone makes a day out of it? We do still take the kids to the big days out (theme parks etc for treats) but this sounds like ripping families off to stare at a screen for an hour 🙈

I think most Londoners know much better places to take our families (most of them free).

I don't understand what you expected, op, or on what basis you think you can take this to the ASA.

Yanbu. I thought about booking and then wondered if it would be as shit as you described, so that spares me a trip!

And I agree with you that there is a horrible irony in shop selling loads of pointless tat alongside a message about saving the planet. Excessive unnecessary consumption is one of the most harmful behaviours.

OP said there was no narrative not that there was no narration. I.e. there was no cohesive message or story.

We don't go to this sort of thing because it's just paying to look at big screens.

I can't see that it was mis-sold.

Tbh, i think the most you can reasonably be annoyed about is that the red button wasn't working.

Reading the description on it's website, I have no idea what else you were expecting.

I have been to a couple of these "immersive experiences" and don't think any of them have been worth the money. They're always light on content and big on screens. I won't go again and hopefully they will be developed with a bit more creativity as others stop going too.

Exactly. I'm surprised this wasn't obvious to people.

But then I think a lot of people have deluded themselves into not realising the environmental harm of excess "stuff".

I live near a port, we see the monstrous huge ships from china chugging along the coast every day, burning huge amounts of fossil fuels as they bring all the tat around the world. (and of course all the raw materials that had to be transported to make them in the first place)

Projecting a message about climate change while flogging crap people almost certainly don't need is horribly hypocritical

Now we thought the Van Gough experience was crap (Bristol).

It just goes to show!

True. I just figured she didn't know the difference like the immersive/interactive thing. It doesn't say anywhere that there is a storyline. It reads pretty clear to me that it's just clips and images from around the world. Not a documentary.

The website seems to describe exactly what it was. Even a couple of people on this thread have said they went and enjoyed it. Not sure why the OP’s experience is more and more valid that theirs.

I quite fancied seeing the Van Gogh thing. Some people on here have said it is a waste of money, but I’ve spoken to other people who absolutely loved it. Sometimes people just have different expectations, so you have to decide whether to take a chance on it being right for you.

It’s the same with anything, particularly on here. Tell people you absolutely love a particular city and in 10 minutes you’ll have people queuing up to tell you why it’s an utter hell hole and how they’ve never hated anywhere so much in their lives!

totally forgot that they also billed it as educational.

No, they didn't. You misread, again.

I went with dd2 last week and I’m confused - there was narration throughout and seats? Yes it was expensive (we combined it with the NHM so half of the day was free) but I got what I expected. I enjoyed looking over the lower balcony, it felt like I was flying over the landscape, and the interactive bubbles in the underwater zone. I also think the message at the end is an important one. Dd2 also enjoyed it, more than the NHM she said.

Was considering taking DS6 to this as he has just done a topic on VG in art - what was it like? I am not expecting to be amazed myself (I’m not hugely into VG), but hoped it might enthral a six year old.

If you want a good immersive experience come on down to Bristol and visit Wake the Tiger

having Re-read to blurb on the website, I would say that YABU to request a refund as the experience did match up to the description. I agree that it was expensive though, so you may have been expecting more for your money. But it is what it is.

Go to the National Gallery or the Courtauld and you can see actual paintings by VG either for free (ng) or pretty cheap (Courtauld) rather than some big-screen bollocks.

Hope everyone interested in nature and sustainaility doesn't eat animals or use animal products. That'd be very hypocritcal.

Yep they did that with school. Which was why I was considering the interactive thing in addition.

Well, up to you. I have looked at the websites for things like this (including the BBC earth one) and always been very clear that it's not something I would bother with.

If I wanted to look at a big screen I'd go to see an actual film.

Obviously some people like it though.

What I don't get is what the op was expecting and what she thinks she didn't get.

@ThisNameIsNotAvailable I’m not sure what other bits you’re talking about as wasn’t the immersive projection the whole thing?

I said that bit was good. It was the rooms before that. It just felt so tacky and unprofessional.

However @Saschka if DS is 6 he may like the last room! The other rooms are just posters of his paintings and lots of text about his life.

I didn’t see any other bits? Went straight into that bit.

30 to look at a TV screen is a rip-off.
Maybe but from the description it's clear that that is what they are paying for. That is what an immersive experience is. It wasn't advertised as interactive

If you get the fast train it’s 30 mins! Takes me a touch longer to get to our nearest big city. Also lol’d as I did a an overnight from the central belt to London last week 😂

I hope this thread is at least helping the OP to form a cogent argument because now we have clarified her confusion over interaction and immersion I really cannot work out her grounds to claim that the event was mis-sold.