Gerard Joling goes quite far to cash in with his Ahoy concerts. After the dubious announcement using the term ‘farewell concerts’, he is now demonstrably lying to boost ticket sales.
It already started with the announcement: Gerard Joling has marketed his Ahoy concerts as ‘farewell concerts’, a term that suggests that he is quitting permanently. Only he is not saying goodbye to his career, not to his performances and not to the talk show tables. He says goodbye to his major solo concerts. But did he even do it?
Gerard lies
A small detail is that Gerard has not given such major solo concerts for twenty years. The last one dates from 2007. Saying goodbye to something you haven’t done for two decades is of course creative accounting. It’s a downright marketing trick and it now appears that it doesn’t stop there.
Gerard has announced a third concert, while he was in. last week Show news still swore that it would definitely only be two concerts, so that if you wanted a ticket, you better be quick. That now turns out to be a lie.
Tierelier
The tricks and lies that Gerard uses to push ticket sales for the concerts in February 2027 are unprecedented. “Fortunately, it’s going like a charm, I’m very happy with that, because ticket sales started yesterday and it’s going really well,” he said in front of the Shownieuws camera last week.
“If people still want to come to the show in Ahoy, go to Ticketpoint and order your tickets, because I’m really only going to do two concerts.”
More profitable
So a complete lie. A third concert has been announced and that was already expected. “I think they would like those evenings to sell out quickly, so that they can add more evenings to them. That makes such a project many times more profitable if you do the same show several times,” TV critic Victor Vlam recently said.
The opinion maker is annoyed by the way Gerard handles this. He probably needs it because his last big hit, Maak Me Gek, was from 2007, Victor thinks. “So they had to do something to ensure that the concert was brought to the attention and what they came up with is that this will be a farewell concert.”
Marketing trick
Victor says in the podcast Victor Indicates TV that he thinks Gerard seems fake. “This is saying goodbye to something that he hasn’t done for a long time. His last major concert was in 2007 and it’s very strange to say goodbye to something that you haven’t actually done for twenty years, so yes, it’s all a marketing ploy.”
He continues: “It is a form of cheating. People buy a ticket because they think it is the last chance to see Gerard and that is absolutely not the case.”
The whole family
And now Gerard’s lie is added. “The concerts are sold out on February 19 and 20, so we have decided to do a third one!”, he shouts cheerfully in Shownieuws.
Will there be a fourth or fifth show soon? “I don’t know if that will happen, because then I have to work for two hours three days in a row, but I have a positive attitude and are incredibly happy.”