Don’t Lie, Get Free Stuff: Cafe Posts CCTV Against Influencer
A North Carolina cat cafe owner posted security footage on TikTok to rebut an influencer's complaint. Her clip drew more than 640,000 views, and she is one of several small-business owners using CCTV to answer online criticism from content creators with large followings.
Nicole Flanagin, owner of the Brews and Mews cat cafe in Lenoir, North Carolina, posted security camera footage on TikTok in March to rebut an influencer's claim that staff turned her child away. The message from a growing number of small-business owners to creators is blunt: don’t lie to get free stuff.
The video that started it
A friend sent Flanagin a link to a local influencer's TikTok at 1:37 a.m. The creator, who has more than 170,000 followers, said she was upset after being refused entry to an unnamed cafe with animals you can pet.
She said she had got the visiting hours wrong. In her telling, staff stood by and stared while her daughter cried.
Flanagin, 41, knew at once it was her cafe, the only animal cafe in the area. The cats are fosters from local shelters. Children aged six and under can only visit during "Happy Meow-ers" sessions, which protect the cats' time away from customers.
She feared the worst. Some of the influencer's followers had already commented favorably on the post, and she expected internet sleuths to find the cafe's name. "I'm going to get crushed," she recalls thinking. "She's going to close my business."
What the footage showed
Flanagin noticed that no official complaint had reached the cafe's inbox, and none of her employees had flagged an incident. So she checked the CCTV.
Time-stamped footage showed the influencer entering and talking with a staffer at the till for less than 40 seconds. She and her child briefly looked at the cats in the window, then left quietly. Flanagin saw little sign of a tantrum or a staring employee.
A day and a half later, she posted the footage on the Brews and Mews TikTok page with an outraged comment about the lies she said had been told. That video has more than 640,000 views.
The creator later deleted her review and posted an apology video. "I was upset as a parent and clicked that post button before I really thought about what would happen," she said.
Not an isolated case
Flanagin is not the only owner to turn to surveillance footage. After singer Kelly Clarkson posted about what she regarded as bad service at the Art of Play shop in Brooklyn, footage was posted in response. Clarkson had been told a $15,000 mechanical bird she wanted to buy was not for sale.
The singer is a celebrity rather than an influencer. Her post still travelled around the world.
Flanagin says she has no regrets. "Why is your opinion any more valid or important than mine or somebody else's?" she says of influencers. "I don't regret defending myself."
