Money Heist season five hype – Creative or Cringey

Money Heist’s season five just came out.

And being one of Netflix’s most popular shows, its release has understandably been hyped up by the streaming service, especially in the Indian market with some conventional campaigns like reaction videos to episodes and fan theories…

Behind the scenes videos, episode name reveals…

And discussions about the show between cast members.

But this season’s hype campaigns also included some unconventional ideas, featuring some very “special” fans including… actually, I’ll let you see for yourself.

First came the “Jaldi Aao” fan anthem following the tune of the song of the series, Bella Ciao. The song’s been created by DJ Nucleya and features the show’s alleged fans, including Anil Kapoor, Radhika Apte, Vikrant Massey, Rana Daggubati, and Shruti Haasan. And while it’s pretty creatively done, netizens including me did think it was a little too cringe. But that was before the second video came out featuring none other than Tiger Shroff.

Okay, there’s one thing about crossovers they don’t tell you: if not done right, they can be very awkward to watch. And that’s how my experience was while watching this video. I haven’t seen a lot of Tiger Shroff movies but even just watching their snippets kind of makes me feel as if the guy isn’t real. Really. He doesn’t seem real. What he does look like is a CGI character, maybe because of the way he’s portrayed in his films as the ultimate action star, or his overall expressions? Anyway, that’s a discussion for another time.

In this video, he’s seen doing some – surprise, surprise – action sequences guided by the Professor (clips from season 4) to steal the Pepsi Gold cans – Money Heist edition, of course – all the while beating the obstacles (re: goons) in his way.

What’s good about these campaigns is that they’re made for the Indian (and probably even the Pakistani/South Asian) market, which makes the show and its popularity in this region all the more significant. But did these videos have to be this cringe?

I of course understand that not everyone would find them awkward and some may even like the songs and the ad, and that’s fine. But my problem with these campaigns is how they seem too superficial as if they’re trying too hard. For example, Anil Kapoor dancing around in a pile of money may be funny and quirky to some, but to me, it feels like it’s a PR stunt disconnected from the actual hype of the show that’s so huge and monumental that Anil Kapoor trying to dance around to its tune just seems off.

The same goes for Tiger Shroff. His action sequences are staged, they don’t really match the vibe of the show and it’s all too commercial Bollywoodesque to feel exciting.

Not saying that the people featured in these videos aren’t fans of the show and to be honest, it’s not even that awkward to watch the general public sing the Money Heist Jaldi Aao song. The real cringe factor is the Bollywood actors, maybe because we’re so used to seeing them in a particular persona that this seems unnatural, or maybe because Bollywood itself is so cringey that connecting it to Money Heist doesn’t really make sense.

Now that I think about it, maybe featuring a younger crowd of influencers would’ve been less weird?

On second thought, no, it would’ve been the same. And I also may be a fan dissing over other fans because they aren’t obsessing over the show my way, but that’s just my opinion, right?

In any case, I am definitely booking my weekend to binge watch Money Heist season five online on Netflix.

Till then, you can give us your take on the campaign in the comments.