JAX JONES

Overview

Those in the UK will have seen the opening of the Brit Awards wherein host Jack Whitehall mocked the now infamous sizzle reel for the doomed Fyre Festival – the subject of not one but two eye-popping documentaries recently.

Another Jack (well, a Jax) is also having a pop at this Bonfire Of The Influencers to promote his collaboration with Martin Solveig. On 22nd March, Jax Jones posted a green square on his Instagram with the message, “welcome to #europa – 28th march www.europaofficial.com”. Fan responses ranged from the joyful (“Wooow my fresh colour”) to the possibly alt.right (a series of frog emojis) via the utterly bewildered (“It’s just green mate” along with a cry-laugh emoji).

It was surely a reference to the “orange tile” strategy that announced the Fyre Festival back when people were excited about it (i.e. influencers all posted the same coloured tile at the same time to cook up a viral effect).

Jones and Solveig have a new album, Europa, coming out soon and the Instagram post led users to a sign-up page, pretending it’s an event where they could “apply for guest list”. But really it’s just a pre-save for the album, with lead single ‘All Day And Night’ released on 28th March where fans could choose to have the track pre-added to their collection and also sign up to the Jax Jones mailing list.

It did not have the high-production values of the Brits spoof of Fyre, but it was a nice subtle nod to those in the know – both ridiculing the viral effect and hoping to benefit from it. In many ways, he’s having his Instagram cake and eating it. Just don’t ask him how he’s going to get some bottles of Evian to wash it down.

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