- [Aria] This move I'm about to try is a very risky play.
- [Elaine] And he grabbed me by the neck
like this (gagging).
- So I just got called out for being a liar.
- So I kind of messed that up.
I'm really hoping Aria doesn't yell at me.
- [Aria] To all my friends,
know I'm very, very sorry.
- I'm gonna hit you!
- Well this has been one hell of a vacation.
Hi there, I'm Aria.
And I've had quite a bit of a year.
So I definitely need a holiday,
but I'd also like to not lose any vacation days at work.
So with the trend of YouTubers tricking their Instagram
followers with fake trips,
I wanna flip that on its head by seeing if I can
fake being at work while actually on holiday for a week.
My Instagram following is not quite as large
as these influencers.
So the goal here is to primarily convince the people
I actually know that I'm still in Los Angeles
while I'm actually abroad.
For this challenge, I'm aiming to post at least
two pictures on my feed during the week,
at least two stories a day,
and I can't have more than three people suspect me
of lying by the end of it.
Okay so I'm here at BuzzFeed with my buddy Jack.
Two weeks before my actual trip
because we're gonna spend the whole day today
taking the photos and stories that I'll need to
post while I'm on my little hiatus.
- I have a lot of doubts.
Anyone that you know and see on a day to day basis,
I think they're gonna know that you're not
at your desk, you're not at work.
Can you get in trouble for this?
- [Aria] To assist me on this challenge,
I roped in Merle.
Merle's job while I'm gone is to be my inside woman
at BuzzFeed.
Providing content to assist me in pulling this off.
- I think we could do it.
- Oh you're just gonna take full credit for it.
- I mean I'm your strongest asset at this point.
- [Jack] Do you have a boss here?
Who's your higher up?
Do they know?
- [Aria] Well I'm here in Rome.
It is one p.m.
And today's the first day I'm supposed to be back
in the office.
Today I'm gonna post a video of me driving to work.
And then Merle is supposed to post a story
that we took before I left
to make it seem as if I'm in the office.
- So I kinda messed that up.
I left a calendar reminder in my own calendar last night
to wear the black dress.
And I'm wearing a Mickey Mouse shirt and sweatpants.
I'm not posting the video today because I think it's a risk.
Sorry Aria.
- So the plan has already changed on day one.
I'm going to be posting what I was supposed
to post tomorrow today.
For the first day, I decide to post a series
of stories near the office with Petey Plastic.
An actor and rapper I've previously hired off of Craigslist
on numerous occasions.
Thank you for coming Petey.
- No problem. - How have things been
for you? - I've been pretty good
recently, honestly, I got like gang (bleep) in Vegas
like three weeks ago, four weeks ago.
- [Aria] Excuse me is that Petey Plastic I see over there?
Petey Plastic!
Petey!
Excuse me sir are you
international rap superstar Petey Plastic?
- Oh why yes I am, check out my new single coming soon.
- That's good, that felt natural.
- So I didn't start off as strong
as I had hoped in this challenge,
but I have redeemed myself
because I checked Aria in.
Because, classic Aria, left his badge at home,
which he does all the time.
Believable, trust me.
And I said he's going to visit Megan.
So Megan is going to get a notification
that Aria's here.
I have a photo in my phone,
so when it asked me to take a picture
after I signed in under Aria,
I held the photo up,
and I got this gem.
So Megan will know that Aria,
or Gollum from "The Lord of the Rings" is here to visit.
And all is well in the world, and he's back.
I'm feeling more confident than ever.
Mostly in myself.
- Mildly intoxicated right now in Rome.
We're gonna do tequila shots!
So far so good, I don't think anyone suspects anything.
Okay, this is the end of my vlog.
I'm not too hungover.
- I was, and now I think I'm fine.
I think it was the coffee that did it.
- Important questions that needed to be answered.
- So I just posted the video for Aria
of him drawing an horribly insulting portrait of me.
This looks like Eugene Levy. (laughing)
I posted to my Instagram,
I'm wearing the outfit from the video.
So I think our plan's right back on track.
On my end, I'm doing everything to a T.
So I kinda messed that up.
If it doesn't work he can't blame it on me
is what I'm trying to say.
So I kinda messed that up.
- [Aria] In addition to sharing Merle's story,
I also threw up a quick poll on Instagram we had staged
in the BuzzFeed canteen.
- [Jack] The BuzzFeed logo in there a little bit.
- [Aria] I will say that things are getting
a little hairy right now.
I've received messages from
several people asking if I'm in the office
and why I'm not coming to see them.
Specifically my dear friend and fellow producer Megan.
I feel bad because Megan was out of the office
for a little while.
And I told her I would see her this week
when I got back to the office.
And I need to stop by her desk, so,
I'm sure right now Megan thinks I'm a bit of an asshole.
To all my friends and coworkers at work
that are watching this now, know I'm very, very sorry.
Buongiorno!
I will say I'm loving Rome.
But whenever I seem to yell buongiorno out the window
no one seems to really yell it back.
Hopefully one day.
On Saturday, I make my to the Amalfi Coast.
But the weekend still presents its fair share
of challenges.
Now that it's the weekend,
I've already received messages from
friends that wanna hangout.
And so now I have to find a way to talk my way out
of those plans.
By making up other plans.
The thing that makes it a littler trickier is the fact
that this isn't just a regular weekend.
It's a long weekend.
Today what I'm posting is, Jack and I filmed a segment
before I left where we went to get ice cream together
so I'm gonna throw that up as a poll
for the audience to choose what I order.
My friend Nando wants to hang out this weekend.
But what I'm going to do is
I'm going to message Nando and actually invite him
to come to the ice cream shop with us.
But Nando's very notorious for being late,
so I'm thinking I'm going to invite him
with very, very short notice.
I'm gonna give him maybe a 20 minute heads up
and I'm hoping that he sticks true to fashion
and is unable to make it.
It's a risky move because if he does actually say,
oh, I'll meet you guys there,
then I don't know what I'm gonna do.
I messaged Fernando, invited him to get ice cream
with Jack and I.
First, Fernando questioned why I'm getting ice cream
so early in the morning.
Fernando then decided to complain about the fact
that I had made plans to hang out with Jack
despite not seeing him yet and ignoring him all week, so,
get another person that thinks I'm an asshole.
- Just say that you'll make it up to him.
- [Aria] I told Fernando that maybe
we could get a drink later.
- [Josefin] I feel like that's a very dangerous thing to say
'cause it definitely seems like you will
have a drink with him.
Like later.
- Well (bleep).
I'm about to go to bed right now,
it's the end of day three.
I just posted a photo that Jack took of me
so hopefully people believe I'm still in L.A.
It's gonna be a little tricky now
because Fernando kind of expects me to hang out
with him tonight.
I guess tonight for him is gonna be while I'm
sleeping here in Italy.
Hopefully I don't wake up to a bunch of messages.
Well turns out Nando decided to have a night in.
Lucky me.
I'm definitely a little stressed
because a bunch of my friends are supposed
to be hanging out today and I'm telling them I can't go
because I'm going to a Ringo Starr concert.
There's another concert going on tonight,
so it works out perfectly.
I need to convince people that I'm
at a Ringo Starr concert using Instagram stories.
So I'm wondering if you guys could
just chant "Ringo" with me.
- [Group] Ringo, Ringo, Ringo,
Ringo, Ringo, Ringo!
- Ringo!
- A part of this is fun
but I also feel pretty bad lying so profusely.
We're gonna walk back to the Airbnb now
and then I have to wake up at five a.m.
to post my stories.
(sighs) All right, I just posted the stories
of my brother and I at the Ringo Starr concert.
As fun as this whole challenge has been at times,
waking up at five a.m. on holiday probably isn't
the best way to spend a vacation.
So moving forward, I'm just
now I'm gonna be more conscious on the fact
that I am on holiday and just not let
this challenge disrupt it too much more.
I think my stories last night seemed to work.
The only things that I'm posting today is something
to my close friends list.
The close friends feature on Instagram is one where
you can only have select people view your stories.
So this is my first time using the close friends feature,
I've added all my friends and coworkers
to my close friends list.
And I'm gonna post a story that we shot at my apartment,
so hopefully they just think that I'm home today.
Okay, so I found myself in a very,
very interesting predicament
because this man, this older fellow,
keeps sending me pictures of his genitals.
I block one account, sends 'em again under a different one.
I block that one, he sends it again under a different one.
I'm mildly intoxicated right now.
I keep receiving messages
from people on my close friends list
suggesting what I do with these nudes
that I keep receiving.
I feel a bit bad. - Is there where we're going?
- I don't know.
It is Tuesday, which means that all my friends
and coworkers are getting back into the office today.
So as an excuse for me not being in the office most
of the day today, I'm going to tell people
that I am going offsite to film an interview
with Elaine, the woman that was captured by baboons
for 29 days.
To help me stage a fake video shoot,
I hire Elaine Ballance, an actress I found on Craigslist.
I'm thinking we just get you in front of a chair,
and you just tell us a harrowing story about how you were
captured by baboons for--
- 29 days I was there with the baboons.
And let me tell you.
- This day is definitely quite risky
because the whole story of Elaine being captured by baboons
for 29 days is kind of ridiculous
and so hopefully some of my more savvyer coworkers
or friends don't find it too suspicious.
Harrowing, this is horrible--
- Horror, horrible.
- Even as your telling the - Horrible.
- Story now, you're traumatized a little bit by it.
- I couldn't believe it, I thought,
oh my gosh, I spent all my money, my life savings,
what's gonna happen to me?
- Hopefully people believe Elaine's acting.
- And he grabbed me by my neck, like this, (gagging).
- I will say that before I went to bed last night,
I posted a story saying I was gonna film this video
with Elaine and I asked my followers
for any questions they may have.
Come up with very vague answers
that I can just throw in.
I actually got a fair number of responses
from my followers, including several of my coworkers.
- I knew who they were, their names, and--
- (laughing) Their names?
Give me a couple of yes's and a couple of nos.
- Yes.
No, definitely no.
Well, I was in Mozambique, in Africa.
Baboons only live in Africa or Arabia
and I took the safari in Africa.
- (laughing) That's great, that's believable.
However, before I could celebrate too much,
I receive an unfortunate message.
So I'm about to go to bed,
and I just received a message
from one of my friends, Adriana.
And she accuses me of being a liar.
(bleeps)
I think everyone just thinks she's a very eccentric woman,
but Adriana seems to think something is up.
And that's a little worrying,
'cause Adriana may talk about it
with some of my other friends,
and then if they start putting two and two together,
this could all go down in flames.
Apparently Adriana Googled the story.
And she's questioning why there's nothing on Google.
Or on the internet at all about Elaine.
Which is a very valid point.
But I think what I decided I'm gonna do is I'm going to
tell Adriana that I'm making a video about
disseminating fake news, how easy it is
to make up stories online and see if people will believe it.
I'll ask her to keep quiet and hopefully she will.
Hopefully she's the only person that
thinks about Googling this woman.
I have two days left on my trip,
and I am celebrating,
not just because I'm in beautiful Amsterdam,
but because I was able to convince Adriana
to keep quiet about her suspicions.
No one seems to suspect that
I am not in L.A. right now,
and I have two days left to pull this off.
Throughout the week, I continue to receive messages
from friends and coworkers asking for me
which continues to make this challenge quite difficult.
It's Wednesday, which means we get free catered meals
at BuzzFeed and so the plan is for Merle
to make me a plate at work
and then take a picture of it for me to post on my story.
Friends have already expressed their displeasure
at the fact that I seem to be actively avoiding them.
- [Megan] You clearly don't care
about being my friend anymore otherwise you would've
made more of an effort to come see me!
It's been a whole week I've been back,
and you don't even care!
- This is yet another day where I'm supposedly
in the office and not seeing them, so,
I'm gonna have to find a way to dance around that.
It's all a risk at this point.
- All right, I just got Aria his lunch.
I took a photo of the lunch.
Originally he asked me if I would put meat on my plate
and I am vegan, and I said no I will not put meat
on your plate, because I'm gonna eat this food
after I take a photo of it.
Look's like Aria's going plant based
on the old Instagram.
I've heard that's very trendy these days anyway, so.
Good for you Aria.
- So we're gonna take a photo here at this green wall
'cause a lot of BuzzFeeders,
they love to abuse this wall.
Before I go to bed I will post up the pictures Jack took
of me in front of the green wall.
But I'm gonna say that Merle took the photos.
I think every BuzzFeed employee that I follow
has taken at least one photo with this wall.
I've yet to do so until today.
It's four a.m. and my alarm has just gone off so I can
post the story of me at Defiant Gym.
Quickly spray.
Okay I need to give a shout out to Defiant Gym,
always a crazy workout here if you need a place
to train Muay Thai this is the place.
At this very moment,
I won't lie, I'm very much looking forward
to this challenge being over.
I actually don't enjoy lying
quite as much as I thought I would've.
Nando and I have already made plans to hang out tomorrow.
But I guess he doesn't know that some car trouble
is incoming.
For my final day of posting,
in order to get out of plans at work
and with friends,
I bring in Roy Allen,
another actor I've hired off of Craigslist.
My car is, for lack of a better word, it's quite beaten up,
it's quite rundown.
- You must have gotten that off Craigslist too.
(laughing)
- What we do have here is we have a smoke grenade.
The smoke grenade will only be able to be used once,
so we have one take with the smoke grenade.
We're gonna put it near the hood,
and were gonna let it kind of just smoke.
I'm gonna snap a couple of videos from my phone,
and it'll hopefully look like the car's smoking,
and then at some point you'll come by
and we'll film you fixing it.
Just talk, improvise.
- What in the world did you do to this thing?
Good heaven.
Looks like it hasn't been maintained in at least five years.
- Yes keep using your acting skills.
- Good heaven.
- It's all right everyone,
I am okay, the smoking stopped,
this nice gentleman here he came by,
made the smoking stop somehow.
Okay, it has just been a few minutes
since I posted the story
and I've already received a whole bunch of messages
from people concerned about my car situation.
And I do feel very bad.
As the night progresses, my phone continues
to blow up with concerned messages from friends.
I got missed Facetimes and messages from some of my friends.
I definitely feel very bad right now
about causing this whole commotion with my story.
I think the difference is that when
other YouTubers, or my coworkers have done this,
lying to their followers,
it's a different dynamic than when you're lying
specifically towards people you know.
Especially your friends
who are invested in your emotional well-being
and it's something I didn't really think about
or take into consideration for this.
I really feel bad that I'm making them worry.
Luckily for me though, it's the final night
of the challenge, and the next day,
I fly back to Los Angeles.
But not before making a quick pit stop at the office
on my way home.
It is currently 5:45, so I've made it into the office
before six p.m. on Friday, so.
- You look really tan.
- [Aria] Because I've been in Europe.
I've been in Europe.
- What?
- What? - Yes.
- No you haven't.
- No, 'cause I saw you at work.
- I have been in Europe. - No you haven't!
- When did you get back?
- [Aria] I got back on Friday.
- Oh my god wait, I have so many thoughts.
(Adriana laughing)
I was mad at you!
- Is that why you're so tan?
(bleep) you! - Yeah I was tanning
while I was in Italy! - Italy!
- Posting on holiday was not the hard part,
I think lying to people was the hardest part.
Especially the people I knew.
Baboon lady, fake.
Car accident, fake.
- I'm gonna hit you!
- The car!
- Smoke grenade. - Mm!
- Yeah. - That crazy man?
- [Aria] That man was, I hired him off of Craigslist.
- You're (bleep) you're a psychopath.
- Did Merle know? - Merle knew.
- That (bleep).
- [Merle] It has been a success,
and I'd like to say that it is in large part
because of me and my efforts.
- [Aria] So you should be just as angry with Merle honestly.
- No. - If not more so,
more angry with her than me.
- I'm not.
- [Aria] I've bought them all souvenirs though,
so hopefully, hopefully they can forgive me.
- I really love it!
- There you go. - And it's your color!
I hate you. - Aw.
- Hey, it's good to see. - Good to see you.
Overall this was a fantastic trip.
Would I do this challenge again?
No, I feel bad
about having lied to so many people.
But we managed to pull it off.
I got Fernando a Dutch gay magazine.
- It was very thoughtful.
- Look at this, beautiful uncut man.
I need more hair.
- [Aria] They're quite shaved these,
these European men. - They're all shaved.
I don't understand. - Are they mostly circumcised
or uncircumcised? - They, this is Europe,
so they're all gonna be uncut.