Hundreds of Children Left in Tears After Shocking ‘Bluey’ Event in Las Vegas
Bluey is, without a doubt, one of the most popular children’s series airing today, and the beloved Australian show is currently in its third season. The series premiered on October 1, 2018, and follows the everyday adventures of Bluey Heeler, an anthropomorphic dog, his family, and his friends. The series has been praised for its approach and is enormously popular around the world, especially after one of the recent episodes included an LGBTQ+ couple, which was received with praise. But while the series is popular, it seems that some people wanting to make money off Bluey don’t really know how and what to do properly.
Several media outlets in the USA, UK, and Australia have reported of a Bluey meet-up gone horribly wrong in Las Vegas, as hundreds of children were left in tears along with an equal number of angry parents.
When you’re a child, meeting up with your favorite cartoon characters is a dream come true. Regardless of whether you’re aware of the fact that it’s just some random guy in a costume, seeing your character and getting to take a picture with them is a child’s dream come true. In the case of Bluey Heeler, seeing how popular the show is, we can completely understand how and why children would want to see him in person.
And that is what they were promised in Las Vegas recently. The restaurant chain Dirt Dog organized a free Bluey meet-up on May 11, promising visitors that they would have a chance to meet the titular protagonist of the series. But it all went South very soon.
As it turned out, the staff of Dirt Tog was not actually prepared for a large-scale meet-up, so when roughly 3,000 people came with their children, they were shocked, and this surprise revealed all the weak points of the event itself. As it turned out, the children ended up leaving in tears, while angry parents took to social media to criticize the food chain. Here are some of their comments:
I get it needed to be quick designs, but whiskers and a paw print? The promised “treats” were cupcakes you needed to pay for. We saw no games and no activities.
Temu Bluey costume and decorations from Dollar Tree featured at Dirt Dog Las Vegas Rainbow! Thanks for ruining my 3-year-old’s day!
My son was heartbroken & I already drove 45min. We love dirt dog… but this time my friends you messed up. Bad Marketing, bad thinking, you really let my son down.
The face painting was worse than MacKenzie’s Mum!
I get it needed to be quick designs, but whiskers and a paw print? The promised “treats” were cupcakes you needed to pay for. We saw no games and no activities.
Sources: Daily Mail | 9news
There were numerous issues – from the treats being gone before the children came to the restaurant being filthy – but the biggest issue was Bluey himself. Instead of a man in a Bluey costume, which does exist, as it has been seen at other events, the children received a man in a Bluey onesie with poor make-up, which disappointed everyone. Photos are available on the links provided above, but we are not going to put them here directly due to copyright issues.
After the severe backlash, Dirt Dog published a public apology:
We are truly sorry this event wasn’t the expected experience. We were overwhelmed with the turnout to this event. We will continue to improve on our events so we can ensure nothing like this will happen in the future.
Sources: Daily Mail | 9news
Luckily, nothing bad happened, and it all ended with a large group of dissatisfied customers, but we are sad that the children were disappointed, and we can only hope that such incidents won’t happen in the future and that the children will get to meet their favorite cartoon character at one point.
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