Surprise! A Penguin show without a penguin

World
Europe

Recently, many people in the eastern Chinese city of Nantong came across a message on their social media about an upcoming penguin show. However, things turned out a little differently than they expected.

Last week, the link to the event was widely shared among the locals. It read: “Shocked! Nantong will see heavy snow in the next two days, and also penguins!”

In the post, it said the 2017 Penguin Carnival would be held at the Nantong Riverside Park on September 16 - 17, where there would be tens of thousands of penguins. The event also invited netizens to repost the link for a chance to win a free entrance ticket worth 20 yuan (about 3 US dollars).

Entrance ticket for the 2017 Penguin Carnival. /Knews Photo

Once the weekend arrived, many parents took their children to the park, some even brought their down jackets, only to find piles of inflatable plastic penguins instead of live, genuine penguins. The penguins soon became visitors’ chairs, eventually deflating on the ground.

Visitors found it so ridiculous that some of them began to take photos and videos. “These are the penguins you want," one visitor said ironically in the video.

Now, the event link has been deleted.

A scene at the penguin show. /Knews Photo

On the Internet, most netizens were angry and pointed out this was false advertising, and had violated the Consumer Protection Law.

“Absolute commercial fraud,” commented Weibo user @fengzhengpanxuanzaitiankong.

“The content deceived and misled consumers. Related departments should investigate the case and make them return the fees,” said another user @weishenmeqi.