E8: Oren Aks on Marketing the Fyre Fest, the Infamous Cheese Sandwich, and Why Our Culture Can’t Look Away from Colossal Failure

Oren Aks was a designer at Fuck Jerry Media, the agency behind the signature marketing of the now-infamous Fyre Festival of 2016. In this episode, Oren recounts his ground-level realization that the festival was a fraud, sharing new details about the debacle chronicled in two documentaries. Oren also tells us about the backlash he experienced after the festival, shares his well-earned lessons around trust, and offers perspective about our cultural fascination with failure. Jesse Genet is joined by a special guest co-host Matty Mo, an artist who made headlines for putting on a fake fire fest as satire in Los Angeles. 

RECOMMENDED PODCAST:

Turpentine VC: Delve deep into the art and science of building successful venture firms through conversations with the world’s best investors and operators. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts: https://link.chtbl.com/TurpentineVC

Catch up on host Jesse Genet’s own crucible moments from her entrepreneurial story in Episode 6:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3HQKu4vbaIuAvhgKLBuyYk?si=UYb2aGlJTxynO_B8UzMkUQ

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e6-host-jesse-genet-on-selling-her-startup-lumi-while/id1691530886?i=1000622369978

TIMESTAMPS:

(00:00) Episode preview

(03:00) How Oren and co-host Matty first met

(04:35) Oren relives landing at Great Exuma for Fyre Fest

(13:30)The social distortion field Oren witnessed at Exuma

(17:00) Distraction efforts and the angry mob

(20:55) Things take a turn

(34:20) Processing the failure while Oren was on the island, and then back in NY

(44:30) The documentaries

(45:25) The red flags in hindsight

(49:00) Financial breadcrumbs

(54:00) The orange square and power of social proof

(01:00:20) Billy McFarland’s new thing

(01:05:18) Why the Fyre Festival has lasting power in the zeitgeist of colossal failures

LINKS REFERENCED:

Oren Aks agency Atomic Milk: http://www.atomicmilk.com/

Matty Mo's site: https://www.themostfamousartist.com/

X:

@fyrefestival (Oren runs this now)

@jessegenet (Jesse)

@mostfamousartist (Matty)

@inthearena_pod