Southampton FC have released their new kit for next season with a mockumentary which appears to take inspiration from Netflix’s Fyre Festival documentary.
The Netflix show tracked the failed creation of a luxury music festival and Southampton’s kit launch sees a character called Mbilly McFarmer embark on a faux adventure to create Saynts Festival – a proposed kit launch on an exotic island in the Solent.
The jokey video stars players such as Danny Ings, Nathan Redmond and Angus Gunn and manager Ralph Hasenhuttl.
Before the kit launch was released, players and the club had shared cryptic posts on social media about the made-up festival.
‘COMING SOON #sayntsfestival’ pic.twitter.com/UbLgEYzX8U
— MAYA YOSHIDA (@MayaYoshida3) May 16, 2019
To apparently make up for the fact the festival on an island in the Solent will not be going ahead, Southampton have decided to host an event at their St Mary’s Stadium in the theme of the festival.
Charlie Read, head of brand and marketing at Southampton FC, said: “The launch of a new kit is always a highlight moment of the year for fans and players alike.
“While Mbilly wasn’t able to sell in his ludicrous Saynts Festival pipedream, the club still wanted to create something unique to celebrate the launch of the new kits and give something back to our fans, which is why we will be hosting our own fan event at St Mary’s on Saturday 29th June.”
Reaction to the campaign has been mixed on Twitter.
Many were positive, commending Southampton’s “awesome” media team.
Our media team are awesome 😎
— Justin woodward (@JustinWoody76) May 17, 2019
Give the social media team a raise. Once again, superb
— Chris Hermitage (@ChrisHermitage) May 17, 2019
But others were less convinced.
One user, who admittedly appeared to be a Spurs fan used a clip of the Saints manager from the video to share their thoughts.
— Hotspur World⚽️ (@Hotspur_World) May 17, 2019
“What was that?” Hassenhutl says.
And some appeared to be more convinced by the video than the new kit itself.
When you spend too much money on the launch vid and have nothing left for the actual kits…
— Pep 🇦🇺 (@PepsiFIFA12) May 17, 2019
Trying to distract attention from how horrible the kit is, I suppose. Looks like they were wearing black training bibs and were interrupted while taking them off.
— Nick Szczepanik (@NickSzczepanik) May 17, 2019
User @PepsiFIFA12 tweeted: “When you spend too much money on the launch vid and have nothing left for the actual kits…”