Toronto's least-favourite new transplant, Austrian spa company Therme Group, is continuing to try and win any amount of public favour it can before it turns a large chunk of the city's Ontario Place grounds into a private wellness complex.

Just last week, the firm released all new designs for the controversial development, trimming the main building by 25 per cent and splitting it up over campus-style grounds with more publicly-accessible space in response to backlash.

But, the brand's bad rap persists despite its efforts, which now also include a booth at the CNE that people are starting to notice — and, naturally, poke fun at.

Among the games, food and drink stands, and other fixtures on the festival's midway, residents have spotted a peculiar Therme Canada booth, which is offering a VR experience to give attendees a better idea of what the new waterfront lands will look like once construction is complete.

Of course, those who have seen the booth have taken to social media to disparage it and Therme's part in the neglected green space's revitalization.

How surprising, people don't seem interested. 🤔

— disillusioned torontonian (@tanyaphillips18) August 21, 2023

While one person on X (formerly Twitter) called the booth the biggest scam at the Ex, another turned it into a meme, asking "What if we kissed and held hands at the Therme Ontario Place VR propaganda booth" in a Reddit thread that has now amassed nearly 1,000 upvotes and more than 120 hilarious comments.

"It's a video of the CEO handing Doug Ford a briefcase in the parking lot of a steak restaurant," one person joked.

"I tried it. It's from the POV of the Therme CEO and is incredibly immersive. For a second there, I actually thought that I was the one bribing a high ranking government official into stealing cherished public land in a foreign country," another added.

And still another: "I was against the government spending hundreds of millions of dollars to dig an underground parking garage on the lake to subsidize a 99-year scam lease of public lands done in a secret deal with an international corporation to build a spa after they destroy an entire island of trees on the waterfront, but the VR experience changed my mind."

What if we kissed and held hands at the Therme Ontario Place VR propaganda booth at the CNE?
by u/CaptTenacity in toronto

Clearly, locals' feelings on the topic remain strong — strong enough to ruin at least one corporate partnership between Therme and a local entity— even though the developer seems to believe that there is actually a fair bit of support for its project.