"It's a great time to be a con man in America" - Fyre Fraud
Everyone who follows the daily news, even if you are not a millennial or immersed in social media, likely heard of the debacle of the Fyre Festival in the spring of 2017.
Briefly, a social media entrepreneur named Billy McFarland advertised a luxury music and lifestyle festival to be held in April 2017 in the Bahamas. The run up to the event became a social media sensation, at least among those young people obsessed with social media, viral marketing, being trendy (not FOMO -fear of missing out), and who have considerable disposable income or a credit card. McFarland and company sold 5,000 tickets to the event, which cost thousands of dollars each ( many paid 12,000)
as Slate reported at the time
The supposedly luxurious Fyre Festival, an event promising “the best in food, art, music, and adventure” on a private island in the Bahamas, has been “postponed” after festivalgoers reported conditions that more closely evoke Lord of the Flies than Coachella. Tickets for the event, which promised performances by Tyga, Desiigner, Major Lazer, Pusha T, and Blink-182, sold for anyhere between $1,500 and $12,000 (though some reports have that number as high as $250,000 for a private villa stay). But accounts from the island itself suggest that the festival was immediately plagued by a total lack of organization , shoddy accommodations , and luggage mishaps , in addition to unconfirmed reports of violence, theft, and feral dogs.
When the festival goers arrived at the "luxury" event they were met at the island's airport by a yellow school bus to take thenm to the festival site. On arrival there they found rows of "FEMA" tents , stacks of mattresses and pillows, cases of whisky and vodka , and general disarray. Within seconds most of the people who had bought tickets were in shock and dismayed, and felt they had been played. After one evening everyone was leaving.
The HULU documentary FYRE FRAUD tells this fascinating if depressing story of greed, hubris, arrogance, social media marketing , and of course gullibility. It is one of the most interesting and best documentaries I have seen in a while. (Netflix released a very similar documentary on the same subject at the same time. I have heard the Netflix film is also very good, but I havent seen that one. )
The ongoing theme of Fyre Fraud is the nature of social media obsession among millennials , and the documentary spends some time giving examples of "influencers", who are young people who become famous for being famous and who , through their social media approval, are said to be able to make or break an event or a brand. Kendall Jenner is mentioned as the queen bee of "influencers" and it helped the Fyre Festival con immensely when she was persuaded to plug the event on her social media pages.
"Influencers" are people who promote a "lifestyle" through social media (one interviewed influencer is asked what the message of her lifestyle is to her followers. "Positivity" she says and then , trying to think of an elaboration on that she loses her train of thought and is silent).
The documemtary serves as an expose of a pathological liar and conman , Billy Mc Farland, but I was most struck by depiction of young people who spend a lot of their free time on their social media trying almost desperately to avoid missing out on something "big".
And yes, near the end of the film they mention the inevitable comparison between the con men and dupes in this story, and the president of the United States, Donald Trump. The internet and other social media make it so easy for people to be bamboozled.
Fyre Fraud is an American documentary film directed by Jenner Furst and Julia Willoughby Nason that premiered on January 14, 2019, on Hulu .
Fyre Fraud is described as a "true-crime comedy bolstered by a cast of whistleblowers, victims, and insiders going beyond the spectacle to uncover the power of FOMO and an ecosystem of enablers, driven by profit and a lack of accountability in the digital age." [1]
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There is a scene near the end of the film where the interviewer says that McFarland lied to the public. McFarland responds that everything he told people was true. The interviewer then goes down a list of specific lies and exaggerations from McFarland. I thought he was going to morph into Donald Trump right there on the screen.
Billy McFarland was sentenced to six years in prison for wire fraud.
"A great time to be a con man in America." ? ?
Not really. Its the best time to be conned in America.
I will have to check this out. I saw a movie similar on Netflix but I'm currently on Season 5 of "Call the Midwife".
Anyway....you probably don't watch "American Horror Story" but one of the characters this season was one of these "influencers" only she used Instagram.