Influencer branded ‘entitled’ after 'exposing' ‘extremely rude’ restaurant - as they tell her she's "pretending to be influential"

A TikTok influencer got a little more than she bargained for after trying to “expose” a restaurant who rejected her offer of a collaboration - as the venue hit back with a cutting remark and she received negative comments from her followers.

Jamieson May, who has nearly 10,000 followers on her TikTok account @jamiesonmayyy, is a Melbourne-based content creator who shares numerous food and travel videos. She regularly collaborates with different eateries and brands, and is perhaps used to being welcomed with open arms to enjoy complimentary food while she records and posts content. She was met with a response she wasn’t expecting, however, from a vegetarian restaurant called Patsy’s.

When she contacted them to ask if they would be interested in her visiting, they replied to say that her follower count wasn’t high enough. In response, she posted a video on her Instagram page with the title: “exposing a restaurant for being extremely unprofessional and rude”. Rather than gaining lots of support, however, she actually gained lots of backlash - with many watchers accusing her of being “entitled”.

The video, which shows May talking directly to the camera about the situation for over two minutes, had the caption: “I just can't believe that someone else in the professional industry of marketing and having there own business would say this to another human being. Your follower count does not define you! You might have 10x better content then someone with 1 million followers!! I wanted to create this video to let all other content creators know that this is extremely unprofessional and disgusting.”

She also included hashtags such as #exposingthetruth #exposingfooditem and #exposingrestaurants. In the video itself she said: “I am absolutely gobsmacked. I had no words, I was actually disgusted that someone could say that to another person. . . . I wanted to create this video to let all other content creators know that this is extremely unprofessional.”

The video also showed her post screenshots of the message exchange she had with the owners of the restaurant. She shows that the message Patsy’s sent her read: “You don’t seem to have any followers, maybe you should approach us when you have over 100k.” She replied and told them they were “extremely rude”, and they responded with the cutting remark: “Perhaps . . . but you are pretending to be influential on social media and that’s just not true.”

May also claimed she was going to “out” the restaurant until she posted about her experience on her Instagram Stories and her followers encouraged her to “name and shame”. The subsequent TikTok video received a lot of backlash - but not against the restaurant, against May herself. In reaction, May has now turned off the comments on her video so she can’t be subjected to any more negativity.

Speaking to news.com.au, May stood by her opinion, however. She told the publication: "When I first outed the restaurant on TikTok, it reached the wrong audience of non-creators and influencers who didn’t understand what was happening. People sent extremely rude comments that I am just an ‘entitled influencer’ who just wants ‘free’ stuff and I am complaining about it all. I have worked with many restaurants other business over the last four years and I had never experienced such rudeness. I was in shock.”

The owners of Patsy’s restaurant, Mathew Guthrie and Clinton Trevisi, have also defended their stance. Also speaking to news.com.au, Guthrie said: “I think judging from her reaction to me being blunt about her unsolicited marketing reach out, she was surprised that we were not interested working with her.”He added: “Obviously the reason we did not want to collaborate with her is quite easy to understand when you glance through her profiles on various sites. Her followers are not really people that we have in the venue often and probably not the market that we are looking to engage with.”

They pair also said that they didn’t want to “add to the pile on” of negative comments May had received, but concluded: “I think she was just hoping to increase her visibility with these outrage posts. It sort of has worked already but I am not sure how it will be able to be monetised as marketing.”