In 2012, an advertisement made by famous director Casey Neistat started with a scene where he released the Nike brand FuelBand while showing the slogan, “Life is a Sport, Make It Count”. It is understood that the scene was the only element that Nike asked to be included in the advertisement at that time.
While the others? Neistat follows his own head regardless of what Nike has promised. After successfully making two ads for Nike that year, Neistat and his friend – also a video editor – Max Joseph are getting bored and want to get out of the habit.
Ahead is a budget of USD $ 80,000 (RM300,000) and an agreement that has been signed with Nike.
When it came time for him to make a third ad for Nike on a given budget, Neistat decided to discard the deal he had signed with Nike and chose to go out and travel around the world.
Neistat’s decision is considered crazy, first because he has violated the agreement that has been set, and the second is to use the budget given by the client to travel the world.
In an interview with Fast Company, Neistat stated that what he did was to forget all about Nike; about shoes, shirts, jackets, and all about Nike.
The four-minute ad covers his travels to several foreign countries. With some food montages, scenes where Neistat runs or walks around the area he visits and spends time getting to know the customs and culture.
“We’re like, well and we’re leaving,” Neistat said. Everything looks relaxed and spontaneous. It seems to be a different ad than the others. But it is still considered relevant by observers because it has to do with what Nike wants, which is “Life is a Sport, Make It Count”.
However, when he wanted to present the advertisement to Nike, Neistat admitted that he was afraid of what Nike would say with the ‘crazy project’. He also added that during the process of editing, he and his friends had no idea how to combine the 29 hours of recording in the 13 cities they visited.
With the help of his friends, they worked quickly and successfully found the pattern they wanted by combining visual clips with inspirational quotes from Hunter S. Thompson, Albert Einstein, and Marilyn Monroe. “The quote represents an idea that does not belong to me; what I think is a universal idea of what it means to make life more important, ”he said.
However, the advertisement managed to steal the spotlight. It has been watched by more than 30 million people in a very short time. Neistat thinks this idea is crazy because he might be sued by Nike for breaking the deal. But looking at the results, he was satisfied and thanked Nike for giving him the flexibility to work.
“As a director, I have the best job in the world,” he said, “but if I break down the barriers, then what’s the point of having an advantage?”
Sources: Fastcompany.com, Ian Borthwick