Fyre Festival was an event that shocked and repulsed people as much as it did entertain and intrigue. Fyre Festival, a stunt headed by Billy McFarland (since charged with six years and incarcerated), was a fraudulent luxury music festival. The disastrous event proved the power that social media had on the public consciousness, aided by supermodel advertisement and picturesque trailers shot against the white beach backdrop of a Bahamian island. For however innovative and business-minded McFarland was for advertising and hosting a festival marketed towards the high-profile customer, the lives of those affected by the failure of the festival was drastic.

However, Fyre Festival was significant in proving the power and influence held by those able to manipulate social media platforms to garner public interest and create business. Evian’s recent partnership with Andy King, the event producer of Fyre Festival, shows Evian consciously taking advantage of King’s internet fame for the benefit of their company, with King famously quoting in the documentary ‘take one for the team’ after being faced with the dilemma of clearing Evian water through customs. Although the dilemma King speaks of ranges on absurdist – the prospect of exchanging sexual favours for the sake of getting water for the festival – Evian’s partnership with King is deliberately and cleverly crafted, its slogan playing off King’s misfortune, ‘So good you’d do anything for it’.

Evian’s partnership is neither an isolated event, nor is it uncommon. More frequently in our age of social media and constant connection can we observe the greater online presence brands are exhibiting in order to sell their products. Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX and CEO of Tesla has become infamous for his online presence. His Twitter bio reads ‘Born 69 days after 4/20’, and more recently, he released a song ‘Don’t Doubt ur Vibe’ deliberately playing off a running internet joke about ‘vibes’. It is Musk’s awareness and deliverance of internet jokes that has caught the attention of those who recognise these jokes, awarding Musk a greater presence both online and in real life.

Given the growing market of online shopping, particularly popular among the younger generation, it makes complete sense for brands to exhibit greater online presences in order to keep up with this growth and ensure the survival of their brand. A friend that I asked about this suggested, ‘It’s important for the growth of the company, it reaches the younger market.’ Office for National Statistics cites that in 2019, 97% of 16-34 year olds shopped online compared with 76% of 35+. Whether it is beneficial or not, online shopping looks to be a market that will exist for many years to come, making up 21.3% of all retail sales in 2019 (compared with 2.8% in 2006).

More worryingly, the constant connectivity and online presence the average internet user holds is something that has tirelessly been taken advantage of by brands in recent years. In response to multiple breaches of personal data (such as the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal) the Data Protection Act of 2018 was created, stipulating that a user must be informed about how their data is used by the government and other organisations. Although the message ‘we value your privacy’ popping up on most websites you visit is annoying, it reveals a deeper concern about the protection of each person’s data.

The Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal revealed that British consulting firm Cambridge Analytica harvested personal data from Facebook users to build a system that profiled US voters and targeted them with political ads, as a means of garnering votes for the Republican party. In essence: Cambridge Analytica created propaganda targeting the average Facebook user. The internet’s response to Zuckerberg’s court case over privacy concerns is characterised by the running internet joke accusing Zuckerberg of being a shape-shifting lizard disguised as a person. In a live Q&A hosted on Facebook live, Zuckerberg was quoted as saying ‘I am not a lizard’. The meme community that shaped around this does bring into question whether a greater awareness of brands’ online presence as a means of pushing product to the extent that personal data is stolen, is really useful at all. You can decide for yourselves.