Fyre Fraud (The Hulu documentary)

Ata friend's suggestion, I watched the Hulu documentary about the Fyre Festival and B illy McFarland who is now serving six years in prison for wrie fraud, all to get an ill-fated millennial  version of Woodstock off the ground. And by millennial version I mean arrogant, self-absorbed, superficial and obsessed with "experiences."

By the way, this characterization isn't coming out of malice or jealousy from me; I'm paraphrasing how the millennials in Fyre Fraud described themselves.

There's a weird ethics debate going on about Fyre Fraud. It turns out  McFarland was paid to participate in the film, whereas the producers of the Netflix documentary declined to pay him, and so he didn't appear in it.

I would argue that while paying him to appear in the documentary is ethically and morally wrong, objectively it was the right thing to do, because it allowed us to see him for who he really is. To show what a con he really is, the Fyre Fraud producers are suggesting the 250K number he threw out as payment was over-inflated, only proving their point.

The second part of the ethical debate is that the Jerry Media (Fuck Jerry and the Douche Bag Brigade)  who were part of the fiasco from the start were co-producers of the Netflix documentary. In other words, they want to make a buck just like McFarland. So it's not like Netflix's version is any more upstanding..

I haven't yet seen the Netflix documentary. I doubt I will. It's not really a big enough story to warrant to money-grabbing documentaries. What I did appreciate about Fyre Fraud is its cynical honesty.

As someone who works in advertising,  I am constantly told millennials are the holy grail of demographics. They have disposible income, they value experiences over product benefits and they are obsessed with their personal brand.

All of this is true and also false. If millennials had as much disposible income as sugested, many of them wouldn't still be living at home with their parents. If they were the be all and end all of popularity, a few of them wouldn't have to pay for views and follower counts and fabricate a fabulous lifestyle.

The Fyre Fraud festival does suggest they are all easily duped by the same marketing techniques including Fear of Missing, or FOMO. But there's nothing new here. Vice built its brand on hype. And advertising has used this technique for decades. That's why "act now," "Hurry," and "There are only 100 seats left," are still part of the lexicon.

But I will say this– if millennial value authentic experiences, then you couldn't have gotten more authentic than paying a boat load to attend a shit show trainwreck of a concert that never was. if anything the millennial influencers who experienced Fyre should thank McFarland for the experience.