[cheers and applause] heers and applause] this is "nightline." tonight, under the influence. some of social media's top influencers under the microscope. names like kendall jenner and bella hadid, accused of taking money to promote the failed fyre festival. can you trust what they're saying? and ted bundy backlash. >> his name is theodore bundy. >> a new movie about the notorious serial killer. zac efron playing a man who killed dozens of women. does it sexualize a psychopath? or show an eerie double life of the man who shocked the nation.

>> reporter: plus, close encounters. head out on an expedition as we see humpback mothers and their calves. ginger zee up close and personal with gentle giants. but first, the "nightline" five. ightline" five.

that leave therea lasting impression. like the feeling of movement as a new journey begins, or the sight of soft fur, warmed by the morning sun. you might remember new flavours, the sound of an old friend's laugh, or a view that defies all expectations. these are the memories that stay with you, long after the moments have passed.

good evening. thanks for joining us. it was supposed to be the unforgettable music event of the century. but now as the saga of the failed fyre festival continues to unfold, the big companies and super models who promoted it on social media are under fire for not exposing the big bucks they made while doing it. it discloses some of the sexy ways influencers do their bidding. kendall jenner showing off her super model poses for her instagram followers and bella hadid for her 22 million followers. but now they're under fire for the infamous fyre festival fail. the models featured in the promotional video. >> you're talking about swimming pics, beautiful

islands. >> reporter: in reality. >> turn around! >> reporter: there was no luxe lodging, no super models to be found. the festival's path from blaze of glory to burn out documented in fyre, the greatest party that never happened on netflix and now those influencers are under the microscope. >> the new fallout over the fyre festival. >> reporter: last week a judge approved a request to subpoena files from kendall jenner and others who were collectively paid more than $5 million to build buzz for the failed festival. >> they are trying to track down the money and where it went, and they don't have direct access to the person trader of the fraud

because he's incarcerated. so the best way to go about that is to look at people who were compensated. >> reporter: kendall jenner was reportedly paid $275,000 to promote the event in this now-deleted instagram post. there was no mention it was a paid ad. one of those named, jerry mememe mick billy mcfarland, ceo of fyre media inc. and founder of the festival came up with a unique way to build a buzz. >> we will have the best social influencer campaign ever. we have the biggest people in the world, comedians, actors,

actresses. >> as soon as the model started posting, the fyre instagram account started to blow up. >> reporter: he talks about the lengths that fyre media went to maintain their image. >> these comments are killing us. what do we do about all the people talking [ bleep ]. the decision was to screen shot all the legitimate questions and forward that over to the fyre team, and then delete all of the negative comments that were degrading the brand. >> i saw them actively deleting comments, and then turning comments oven material ff so yo saying i don't have my flight information, where do i need to go? >> reporter: it's highlighted in the hulu documentary "fyre fraud." >> there were vendors who dropped out. for everybody this is a red flag. this is one of those things that you kind of question, if they're

doing something why aren't we? but it would always come back to, nah, there's so much momentum, so much money, so much force behind everything. >> reporter: x would later leave the company. chris smith says they were independent. >> we felt good about diving deep and do an objective look at everything that hand, not just with jerry media but with everybody involved. jerry media's owed $150,000. all these people were affected. they were trying to do their job. >> reporter: before the fyre festival debacle, we chronicled someone whose name we can't say on air. there were 14 million followers. and in their offices, memes equalled big money. 90% of their followers were between 16 and 35 years.

experts estimated that top social media influencers like elliot tabelli and his team were making upwards of $75,000 for branded posts on instagram. abc news reached out to jerry media and the models for comment on their involvement in appropriating the festival but have not heard back. one of the people who believed those fyre festival social media posts was mark crawford. he spent thousands of dollars for tickets after he saw the slick advertisement. >> i actually heard from a friend of mine. she had the whole video. it was a no-brainer. >> reporter: guests who paid thousands of dollars for the ultimate luxury get away were stranded in waterlogged tents eating soggy cheese sandwiches. the fyre festival story is a

cautionary tale that not everything you see on social media is real. but advertisers are still cashing in on the potential. this year the social influencer market is expected to reach $2 billion. >> you're actually an influencer right around 10,000 followers, but you're srcertified around 100,000. right around that time they start to make more money. >> reporter: the federal trade commission cracked down, sending more than 90 letters to celebrities, athletes and other influencers and the brands they endorse, reminding them that they must clearly and conspicuously expose endorsements and sddisclosures. >> we find it common for them

not to reveal their endorsements. >> we took a big jump and a big risk. and v one has failed. how we're solving this, first, all guests have been taken home safely on planes. next, everybody is being refunded for their ticket purchase and everybody is getting a comped ticket to fyre festival 2018. >> reporter: ultimately, they were charged with defrauding investors of $27 million, telling a judge, i lied to investors about various aspects of fyre media and my personal finances, elaborating that he great lay und greatly underestimated the resource it is would take to pull off a festival of that scale. he is now serving a six-year sentence in federal prison. hulu paid mcfarland for this interview. but two years later, those hurt

the most were locals hired by the festival. >> i went through about $50,000 of my savings that i could have had for a rainy day. >> reporter: mary and ruhle has raised $200,000 through a gofundme page. and elliot tebele tweeted that he just gave every dollar his agency earned. >> in the movie, he says this will be a movie that will be case studied in the future. and i think he's right. >> our thanks to lindsey. up next, sexualizing a serial killer? backlash against the ted bundy movie. movie. be right back. with moderate to severe crohn's disease, i was there, just not always where i needed to be.

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the new zac efron movie about serial killer ted bundy, does it sexualize a serial murder or paint a creepy portrait of a man many thought looked too clean cut to kill. >> reporter: he was perhaps the most notorious serial killer in american history, ted bundy, a psychopath known as much for charisma as his heinous crime. >> he doesn't look like the type to kill somebody. >> did you do these >> absolutely not. >> reporter: and now the movie

is sending shockwaves. zac efron portraying the sinister killer who used his own attractiveness to lure more than 30 women before brutally murdering them. ? ladies a >> ladies and gentlemen, i am that innocent suspect. >> you are skating on thin ice, partner. >> reporter: now it cit 1i criticism. >> you see him smiling, kissing women. it is a sexy, attention grabbing trailer. >> reporter: they denounce the promo for making ted bundy hypersexualized. >> he was known as a charming, charismatic guy. that is why he was cast. >> reporter: the preview's

release coincide's with the biopic's debut at sundance. efron known for wholesome roles in "high school musical" and "the greatest showman." taking on his darkest character yet. >> i think he's a fascinating individual. this is a great movie for a hard lesson to learn. >> reporter: despite the controversy over the trailer, some who've seen the film in its entirety say it's a fair depiction, calling it honestly unsettling and a fine, smartly-structured screenplay. >> what's it like for somebody to actually be guilty like ted bundy, but everyone around them is so charmed that they think he's innocent? >> reporter: joe burlinger directed the biopic and spoke about efron's casting before the outcry. >> in many ways we are take his

teen heartthrob image and turning that on its head. we're understanding why women were so attracted to this charismatic killer through zack's performance. >> reporter: and since the controversy, the director saying the film in no way glorifies bundy or his atrocious acts. our film is a serious portrait of how he deceived the people closest to him. and his manipulation of the american media allowed him to flourish. burlinger who spent his career focussing on criminal justice reform has now directed the new docuseries "conversations with a killer." the ted bundy tapes with these never-before heard audiotapes. where that psychopathic charm was on full display. >> i think things are going to work out. that's about all i can say.

>> good evening. i'm ted koppel and this is "nightline." his name is theodore bundy. he's confessed to 20 killings and is suspected in at least 16 more. >> reporter: ted bundy went on a trail of terror in the '70s. >> protected from me and others like me. >> reporter: wooing young women, kidnapping, raping and killing at least 30, dismembering some. >> a lot of times, he would want them out cold. so if they were out cold, he could do whatever he wanted to do. >> reporter: bundy's homicidal rampage spanned at least seven states. >> people in one county tended to work in their county. they didn't talk to the next state over or two states over. so as a result, he was able to evade being identified for such a long period of time, in effect, because law enforcement really wasn't sharing information with each other. >> reporter: in 1975, bundy was

finally arrested and later convicted of kidnapping but escaped police custody twice. a few years later at this flori florida florida sorority house he killed. >> he felt no matter what he did that he was smarter than all of them. >> reporter: his televised murder trial where he acted as his own attorney attracted millions of women. before his death, bundy finally confessed to more than 30 murders, although the true number of his victims may never be known. >> for everything that he did to the girls, the bludgeoning and the strangulation, i feel that the electric care is too good for him. >> reporter: he was executed 30 years ago last week, but his

infamy lives on. >> he defied stereotypes and became a media star. he knew how to manipulate the media. and more importantly, his murder trial was the first nationally-tell advised trial. bundy made serial murder mainstream entertainment pause because we watched it live. on a chilly night we take you to the caribbean to swim with whales. whales. touch shows how we really feel. but does psoriasis ever get in the way? embrace the chance of 100% clear skin with taltz, the first and only treatment of its kind offering people with moderate to severe psoriasis a chance at 100% clear skin. with taltz, up to 90% of people quickly saw a significant improvement of their psoriasis plaques. don't use if you're allergic to taltz. before starting, you should be checked for tuberculosis. taltz may increase risk of infections

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and finally tonight, some rare whale watching in one of the few places in the world people can swim alongside humpback whales and their calves. let's head out to sea with abc's chief meteorologist ginger zee. >> whoa! >> reporter: we're in the middle of the atlantic ocean, and humpback whales are everywhere. this is the silver bank, this is where'm talking 5,000 to 7,000 of them migrate

every year. oh, wow, wow. they come here from norway, from canada, from maine so that they can mate and have their babies. and they all come here to the silver bay. see that? there's a mother, there's a calf, and an escort is what they call it. it's a male that wants to be around. this is going to be our playground. >> getting ready. we're going to get a fly-by here. >> try to get in as quietly as you can. it makes the first encounter more >> reporter: they're right in front of you. i was amazed how close we were right away. this time we got in, they were right by the boat. then the escort kept pushing the baby and the calf away from

best one >> and a special thanks to our sponsor, the dominican republic's minister of tourism. you can catch our deep dives on hulu. goodnight america. goodnight america.