YouTuber Natalia Taylor decided to fake a holiday at home. Taylor, who has amassed over 370k followers on Instagram, made her followers believe she was in Bali last year when she was actually in a furniture store.
As travel remains at a standstill due to Covid-19, Taylor told her followers she practised social distancing at a beautiful vacation villa in the sunny tropical getaway in Miami, Florida. She was in her apartment.
Speaking on her prank, she said: “It has to be somewhere inconspicuous. It has to be somewhere I can be right now, realistically. I feel like Miami could be fun.”
Taylor said Miami was a “road trip” away, which meant that her followers would not get suspicious.
Taylor, who does not condone travelling during the Covid-19 pandemic, revealed that this was an experiment to see whether her followers believed she was on holiday or not.
She decided to recreate three different types of Miami vacation photos: the tropical drink on the beach, the breakfast in bed and the classic Miami balcony shot that she will share with her followers on Instagram. She also used other people’s Instagram stories to make the experiment more authentic.
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A post shared by Natalia Taylor(@natalia__taylor) on Apr 30, 2020 at 11:49am PDT
On her first post, captioned: “ Self isolating in style 🤭🌺🌴 #miami” (sic), Taylor posted a picture of herself at the beach with a cocktail.
Most of her followers sensed that the image was altered.
User @quacksonsmulti commented: “girl your not in Miami 😂 your ig story yesterday said you were in corona california 😂 but that effort 😍” (sic)
User @nikkimariehoffman commented: “Is this another video of you trying to trick your followers like that time you went to “Bali”😂” (sic).
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Breakfast at Tiffany’s? We only know BREAKFAST IN MIAMI!!! 🌊🍍
A post shared by Natalia Taylor(@natalia__taylor) on Apr 30, 2020 at 11:58am PDT
In the second image, Taylor is laying on the bed with a pineapple in her hand. She captioned the image: “Breakfast at Tiffany’s? We only know BREAKFAST IN MIAMI!!! 🌊🍍” (sic)
It seems her followers were not to be fooled again.
User @kristina_rylick1 commented: “I’ve outsmarted you Natalia.” (sic).
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A post shared by Natalia Taylor(@natalia__taylor) on Apr 30, 2020 at 12:11pm PDT
In her third image, Taylor is positioned on her balcony with the view of Miami in the background. She posted the caption: “ Welcome to Miami 🍉💦.” (sic).
User @azebothegiraffe commented: “It takes 39 hours to drive there!!!!!!!!!! You were in corona cali like 24 hours ago. There is no way. Also you are too good of a person to take flights at this time!!!” (sic).
Guess most of her followers did not believe the prank.