An influencer was given a harsh dose of reality when Melbourne restaurant Patsy's bluntly refused to collaborate with her. She then tried to shame the owners - but it spectacularly backfired

A wannabe influencer has been bombarded with 'rude' messages after her attempt to 'expose' a restaurant for rejecting her unsolicited marketing approach backfired.

Melbourne-based Jamieson May, who styles herself as a 'travel, lifestyle, fashion and food creator', posted an almost three-minute rant last month about vegetarian restaurant Patsy's located in the CBD.

'I received the most horrible message yesterday from a restaurant [after] wanting to work with them and I need to make you aware so you guys never work with them and know your standards,' Ms May whined to her 9,000 TikTok followers. 

The aspiring influencer sent a message to Patsy's on Instagram to ask if the restaurant's owners would work with her to create marketing content. 

But she was left stunned by the restaurant's blunt response.

Melbourne-based Jamieson May (pictured), who styles herself as a 'travel, lifestyle, fashion and food creator', posted an almost three-minute rant last month about a vegetarian restaurant called Patsy's in the city's CBD

She was shocked by the restaurant's 'blunt response'

'You don't seem to have any followers, maybe you should approach us when you have over 100k,' the restaurant's account wrote back. 

Ms May has just shy of 17,000 followers on Instagram. 

‘I’m absolutely gobsmacked. I had no words,' she said.

'I was actually disgusted that someone could say that to another person.

'This is clearly someone not in marketing - they don't understand literally anything.'  

But her rant backfired when she was deluged with criticism. She has now turned the comments off underneath the Instagram video.

'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,' Ms May said.

'People sent extremely rude comments that I am just an entitled influencer who just wants "free" stuff and I am complaining about it all.'   

Ms May said she was 'absolutely gobsmacked' by Patsy's message

Patsy's, which is owned by restaurateurs Mathew Guthrie and Clinton Trevisi, also defended its response and said it was 'obvious' that they did not want to work with Ms May given her follower profile.

'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,' Mr Guthrie told news.com.au.

'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.'

Ms May told Daily Mail Australia that she 'never asked for a free service' and that she just objected to Patsy's 'customer service'.

'I am standing up for small creators who might have amazing content but don't get the recognition they deserve,' she said.

'Most people have just been called me entitled when they don't fully understand how content creation works in the marketing world.

'All of my content creator audience and friends have agreed with me on the matter.'