Figured out that ghost kitchen ad was filmed in a real apartment

I was scrolling through Facebook yesterday and saw this ad for a local burger place called Midwest Grill Co. Looked legit, showing a cook flipping patties in a clean kitchen. But something felt off. I zoomed in on the background and saw a dirty laundry basket in the corner. Then I noticed a cat tree behind the counter. I ran the video through a free reverse image search tool I found on Reddit. Turns out the whole clip was stolen from a home cooking vlog on YouTube from 2022. They just slapped their logo on it. These ghost kitchen scammers are getting lazy. Has anyone else spotted obvious props or home items in these fake restaurant ads?

2 comments

2 Comments

williams.kim19d ago

Wait hold on, that reverse image search tool probably saved the clip but not the whole frame right? Those free browser tools only grab what's on your screen at the time, so you might have missed some watermarks or original credits in the video's corner. Most of those tools are really thumbnail scanners too, not full video analyzers. I use TinEye sometimes for images but video matches are way trickier and usually need a subscription service. Did you check the video's metadata at all? That sometimes reveals the original upload date and channel name hidden in the file properties.

the_thomas19d ago

Nah, I think you're overcomplicating it. The dude spotted a cat tree and a laundry basket in a burger ad. That's pretty clear cut without needing metadata or TinEye.