The recent Netflix and Hulu documentaries about the Fyre Festival have thrust the failed event back into the spotlight. That was a few scandals ago, so for those of you who don’t remember it, here’s a short recap.
Billy MacFarland and Ja Rule wanted to host a luxury festival on a deserted island. They found an island that belonged to Pablo Escobar, and secured a lease on the condition that they wouldn’t mention the drug lord’s name. Not long after that, Fyre used Escobar’s name in a social media post. And not long after that, the company was forced to find a new deserted island – or find a way to make an inhabited one look deserted. (They chose option B.)
Meanwhile, a group of over 60 influencers – including Kendall Jenner, Emily Ratajkowski, and Bella Hadid – got to work promoting the festival on Instagram, without disclosing that they had been paid to do so. (According to some reports, the initial group of influencers were paid between $20,000 and $250,000 each.) This resulted in over 300 million impressions in 24 hours. The hype worked, and people started paying up to $12,000 for tickets.
Things on the ground were going less smoothly. When guests arrived, instead of finding the luxury accommodations, gourmet food, and big-name bands they were promised, they found FEMA tents, a food shortage, and none of those bands. If you’re wondering whether any of this is fraud, Ja Rule directly addressed that question in the Netflix documentary. During a phone call, he assured his colleagues that it’s not fraud – it’s just “false advertising.” (Note to Mr. Rule’s lawyer: maybe keep him off the witness stand.)
As MacFarland sits in jail and Ja Rule and his colleagues fight lawsuits, a federal judge gave a bankruptcy trustee permission to subpoena Kendall Jenner’s company, some of the agencies that represented other influencers, and other vendors who were paid to organize or promote the festival. It’s too early to tell what will happen next, but these developments are likely to lead to more scrutiny about how companies advertise on social media and use influencers.
We’ve posted about these issues many times before. To summarize:
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Social media posts are subject to advertising laws, so those posts must be truthful and not misleading;
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Influencers need to disclose their connections to the companies they are promoting; and
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Companies need to take steps to manage their influencers.
But if you don’t have time to read those posts, watch one of the documentaries, see what the Fyre organizers did, and do the opposite.
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