The Fake Restaurant Stunt That Alerted Millions to Food Inequality

Social media is a battleground. All types of creators jostle for their place on the screen, fighting to hold attention and not be batted aside with one fell swoop of the thumb. Faced with this barrage of advertiser, influencer, and political content – especially of the distressing kind – audiences grow more desensitised every day. In such an environment, how can a charity overcome compassion fatigue and drum up real support for its cause?

“You need to enrage and engage,” answers Niamh Cooper, global director of public engagement at international children’s charity, World Vision. When traditional mournful videos no longer seem to work (and often veer into downright disrespectful territory), understanding audience behaviour is key to unlocking engagement. “They need to be entertained while receiving an important message. ‘Assez’ did exactly that.”

‘Assez’, the French translation of the charity’s broader ‘ENOUGH’ campaign, was the name given to the fake Michelin-star restaurant created by social agency, Thumbstoppers. “Thumbstoppers do exactly what their name suggests – create content so engaging it stops you from scrolling,” Niamh informs us.

Leveraging their extensive and exclusive influencer network, Thumbstoppers invited a series of influencers, food reviewers, and press to bring a guest to the exclusive, seemingly VIP venue – a dressed-up warehouse in East London – while eight hidden cameras caught their reactions as the dark reality of the experience began to dawn on them.

Despite there being enough food in the world, unequal distribution means that millions around the globe go hungry every day – an injustice that’s worsening due to conflict and climate change. So whilst one diner was treated like royalty, the other was thrown scraps and dirty water; sharing was forbidden. Thumbstoppers’ founder and ECD, John Barton explains that fine dining’s familiar and desirable theatre of exclusive indulgence was “twisted into a mirror of the real problem. Food so close, yet completely out of reach.”

The concept, shaped in collaboration with copywriter Alex Cooper and developed by the wider Thumbstoppers creative team, was “fresh, creative, and bold – something third sector campaigns sometimes lack,” according to World Vision’s global ambassador and influencer manager, Jamie Kemp. From there, director Rosie Litterick elevated the experience with her cinematic eye, and content lead, Mitchell Kendall Smith, crafted the visual storytelling as DOP. “The magic was in the details,” says John, “the tension, the frustration, the raw reactions caught on hidden cameras.”

Every element of the dining experience was designed to feel at once luxurious and deeply off-putting, taking stylistic cues from dark satire, ‘The Menu’. John explains, “We knew the setting had to feel exclusive – but not in a cosy, candlelit way. It needed to be unsettlingly exclusive. The kind of place that makes you sit up straighter, lower your voice, and second guess whether you even belong there.”

The art direction was stripped back, a vast echoing space of dim light and long, lurking shadows. “The silence was loud – no background music, no comforting restaurant chatter,” Johns describes, “just the occasional clink of cutlery and the awkward sound of a guest shifting in their seat. The seating arrangements were precise, the staff’s behaviour was subtly offbeat, and the service was delivered with an almost clinical formality. It felt deliberately unnatural, almost like an art-house installation rather than a traditional dining experience. And that was the point: the best Michelin-starred restaurants have a sense of theatre, so we played with that.”

“Being in East London helped, too,” John adds. “There’s already an appetite for unique, immersive dining experiences. We just took that and dialled up the discomfort for something that felt convincing, yet completely surreal.”

A stunt like this wasn’t just an event, notes John – it was a live performance with no room for error. Meticulous planning was required. Influencers arrived in timed slots and were held in a separate room so they wouldn’t cross paths or question the set up. Staff were briefed on how to respond to confused guests, wired up with earpieces to allow the Thumbstoppers team, operating from a hidden production room, to subtly direct them. “Think Punk’d meets Michelin-star theatre,” John remarks.

The months of planning, approvals, and budget all relied on the execution landing authentically – if the set up didn’t feel real, the entire campaign would fall apart. Asked if she felt nervous, Niamh replies, “Extremely nervous. You don’t know how influencers or their guests will react. Would there be strops? Flying cutlery? Would it even work?”

Luckily, the World Vision team was blown away. “Every single guest reacted differently, which was exactly what we wanted,” says Jamie. Niamh adds “some were even brought to tears. It was a powerful, moving experience.”

The two-day stunt was distilled into a two-minute hero film of the most tense, funny, and gut-punch reactions. “It all came together in a way that made for pure compelling viewing,” John comments. “We weren’t just telling people about inequality; we were making them feel it.”

While the campaign began as a live experience for a select few, the film, and most importantly, the influencer content, were key to extending its reach. John describes how the team leaned into social behaviour to borrow the creators’ platforms: “People love filming their food, sharing their ‘exclusive’ experiences. So we made it shareable – encouraging diners to post as they normally would, only for the shock of inequality to hit them (and their audiences) mid-meal.”

“Creators play a huge role in World Vision’s long-term planning – we treat them as brand ambassadors,” shares Jamie, and they were also crucial to the longevity of the campaign’s impact. “Working with the right influencers not only engaged millions of new people, but also led to lasting relationships,” Niamh explains, as many of them were so impacted that they’ve remained engaged with the charity ever since. “Audiences can tell instantly if an influencer doesn’t care. That’s why alignment is crucial.”

With core targets of reach and engagement, Thumbstoppers delivered on both. The campaign proved the value of bold calculated risks, generating 137,000 views with a 40% view through rate across World Vision’s own channels – meaning nearly 50,000 people watched every second of the video.

“But the real firepower came from the creator-led content programme,” John enthuses, “unlocking a further 8.6 million views, smashing our 5 million target, and ensuring the message reached audiences who might never have engaged with traditional charity comms.” Jamie adds, “This was more than just a one-time stunt – it became a benchmark for how we can use creative, disruptive storytelling to cut through the noise and drive real awareness and engagement.”

For Thumbstoppers and World Vision, the test was whether ‘Assez’ could make waves beyond the non-profit space, standing up alongside the best brand campaigns to command the attention of the wider creative industries. Having gone head-to-head with global agencies and blue-chip brands like Levi’s, LEGO, American Express, and even Meta to earn eight major commendations both within and outside the charity category… It’s safe to say that it did.

Reflecting on the whole experience, John puts the success of ‘Assez’ down to the trust World Vision placed in Thumbstoppers. “The World Vision team didn’t just sign off on ‘Assez’ – they championed it. When you take a risk like this, trust is everything.” Niamh echoes the sentiment: “One of the biggest takeaways was how important it is to trust your agency and not micromanage every aspect. Thumbstoppers were responsible for all of the legwork and organisation, and we were so lucky with how meticulously it was done.”

Six years of collaboration have led to this point. World Vision and Thumbstoppers’ first campaign together came during the pandemic, when the charity needed a creative partner that could deliver impact remotely. Seizing on the exploding popularity of TikTok trends, Thumbstoppers created a fake sing-off for World Refugee Day, directed over Zoom. At first, it appeared to be simply two teenage girls pairing up for a friendly competition; but mid-performance, one feed was abruptly interrupted by conflict. “No explanation. No wrap-up. Just a brutal, sobering reality check,” says John.

Above: World Vision 'Sing Battle Challenge'

“That piece became one of World Vision’s highest-performing creatives during covid. It also set the tone for our partnership: brave, disruptive, and impossible to ignore. Since then, we’ve continued pushing boundaries together, from a fake cooking show exposing food shortages to an entirely fabricated beauty brand revealing child labour in the industry. And now, ‘Assez’ – our most awarded project yet – which took everything we’ve learned about disruption and emotional impact and turned it into a dining experience people literally couldn’t swallow.”