The history of pop music management is littered with cautionary tales about young talent and the handlers who promise to protect them. The fictional boy band Boy Throb, it seems, has decided to write its own chapter — by firing its representation entirely and asking its fans to play matchmaker with Madison Avenue.
Air, the direct-to-consumer luggage and travel accessories brand that has made a habit of aligning itself with internet-native phenomena, has signed on as a sponsor of Boy Throb's debut live performance, scheduled for May 12 in New York. The group, which exists in that increasingly crowded space between satire and sincerity that defines so much of contemporary influencer culture, announced the partnership in a video that invited fans to suggest "ethical brands" they might work with — a phrase that manages to be both earnest and gently mocking of the entire influencer economy.
(One imagines the brand safety consultants at larger holding companies choking quietly on their coffee.)
Boy Throb, for the uninitiated, is a creation that plays on the manufactured earnestness of 1990s and early-2000s boy bands while maintaining the winking self-awareness that social media audiences have come to expect. The group's appeal to fans for brand introductions — complete with a promise to fly one "Non-New-Yorker" to the show — represents either a refreshingly transparent approach to the sponsorship game or a very sophisticated bit of performance art about the sponsorship game. Perhaps both.
For Air, the partnership continues a pattern of seeking cultural relevance through associations that larger, more risk-averse competitors might pass over. Whether the luggage company's target customers overlap meaningfully with Boy Throb's "Throbbers" remains an open question.
The concert, at least, promises to be well-accessorized.
Original story published in adage.com: "Air backs viral boy band Boy Throb’s debut performance - Ad Age"