Monetizing Failure
Fyre Fraud, Social Media, and the Normalization of Crisis
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9744172 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Kristen Hoerl (University of Nebraska–Lincoln), Kristen E Hoerl (University of Nebraska–Lincoln), Casey Ryan Kelly (0000-0003-2250-6822, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 49 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 27-43 |
| Publication date | 2025-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Communication Inquiry (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0196-8599 • E-ISSN: 1552-4612 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/01968599231180645 |
| OpenAlex | W4380084464 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 19 |
This essay analyzes the social media rebranding of the infamous Fyre Festival, a disastrous and fraudulent music concert that went viral in 2017. The posthumous life of the ill-fated festival illustrates the unique confluence of neoliberal crisis and the entrepreneurial logics of social media that enable failed entrepreneurs to exploit their own abject spectacles of fraud and unethical business practices into lucrative opportunities. By looking at how three individuals deeply involved in planning Fyre Fest monetized the media spectacle surrounding the festival's failure through unrelenting spin, ironic self-branding, and the commodification of kitsch, we show how the emerging character of a socially mediated failure industry that revels not only in failure but in the unprincipled nature of risk-taking in the current economy. We conclude by reflecting how the entrepreneurial discourses in the aftermath of the festival are indicative of evolving entrepreneurial logics that normalize the detached and ironic enjoyment of neoliberal spectacles
Aesthetics · Art · Business · Commodification · Economics · Economy · Framing (construction · Kitsch · Media studies · Neoliberalism (international relations · Normalization (sociology · Political economy · Political science · Rebranding · Social media · Social science · Sociology · Spectacle · Gender, Feminism, and Media · History · Law · Management and Organizational Studies · Marketing
Tourists of History
Marketization and the Recasting of the Professional Self
Smoke and Mirrors
The ambivalent Internet
The Limits of Neoliberalism
In the Ruins of Neoliberalism
Questions of Cultural Identity
The Neo-Liberal Revolution
Pants on Fyre
Ironic humor on social media as participatory boundary work
On Social Networking and Psychosis
Algorithmic brand culture
The Modes of Visual Rhetoric
The Irony Bribe and Reality Television
Neoliberalism as Creative Destruction
Undoing the Demos
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |