Nike’s #MakeItCount Video

EDITOR’S NOTE: I know Butter Yo Bread is primarily an entertainment/music blog however I felt this this story was so inspirational and relevant to what Butter Yo Bread is supposed to stand for, that I would do a post about this great video which has rightfully gone viral. Enjoy!

Casey Neistat and Max Joseph were recently hired by athletic giants, Nike to create a commercial for Nike’s new “FuelBand” product. Essentially, Nike’s “FuelBand” is a performance tracker for people that like to run and put their bodies through the ringer and such. The idea behind the story is preposterous at first; however it does start to make more sense. Neistat and Joseph, whom already have history making videos for Nike (Make It Count being their third), were given a full advertising budget from Nike to make a commercial. The incredible part about this whole opportunity is what happens afterwards.

Nike was expecting the film directing editing duo to buckle down in a studio to create a commercial. Not a problem. However, when two people are given this kind of money that average persons will probably never see in their lifetimes, what is one to do? The two decide to take the money and travel the world on a whim! BOOM! Just like that, Max and Casey are flying around on airplanes, determined to “Make It Count.” The pair racked up about 34,000 miles in three continents, 13 countries and they visited 16 cities. This spontaneous world adventure has become 4 and a half minute long video travel diary that has gone viral, being seen by 1.5 million people in just two days.

The trip was not met without its pitfalls. Being such a spontaneous decision, the team decided to travel light, only carrying socks and underwear with their expensive camera equipment. The rule of thumb for our travelers was to be able to have both hands free, so they could constantly shoot the video. Also, there were some problems along the way, where in Egypt (one of the visited countries); tourism has been in decline since the revolution of 2011, although the Egyptians seemed to be happy that tourists were visiting their country. The Pyramids at Giza were almost abandoned for the first time in 50 years and there was the danger of kidnapping by dangerous people in Tahrir Square (the site of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution) when Max and Casey attempted to get a video shot.

The flights themselves were quite scattered with some visits in cities only being about 6 hours in length, to several being considerably longer. There is a part in the video which features a cliff dive into a sinkhole in Oman (an Arab country), which our videographers were so animate about getting this one shot that they were willing to travel around the world for it. Although the people with their goats in Oman spoke no English, Max and Casey got their cliff diving shot and time quickly was running out. One of the film clips that were edited out of the final 4 and a half minute video was an argument with an elephant trainer about doing a backflip off an elephant’s trunk in Thailand, which may quite possibly be one of the most ridiculous arguments documented in a blog post. Also, let’s not forget the “bikini girls” whom apparently did not speak any English, but did not mind being in a video.

Albeit, warding off kidnappers, constantly being jet-lagged and only given time to sleep on 13 hour coach airplane flights, the trip definitely “makes it count.” “It cost a lot of money” is what the video creators are telling the internet right now, when people ask how much money was given to them by Nike. Max Joseph and Casey Neistat are claiming they have shot enough footage to make 10 feature length films, which considering the wide variety of locations (both urban and exotic), this could be a true claim. The video has created a lot of viral reach, garnering over a million views within 30 hours of it being uploaded on YouTube, and the video has created a lot of chatter in the blogosphere, especially amongst opinion leaders on CNN and Mashable. Make It Count tells a story and builds a connection with people, people all over the world, which I believe makes the successful video projects. People want this sort of connection more than superior image quality or having big names attached to a project. Nike has only been impressed about the viral reach the video has gotten and for good reason. I think this video really captures the idea of “making it count” in a very direct and literal way, which makes for a great inspirational YouTube video. “You only live once, but if you do it right once is enough.”- Mae West.

About butteryobread

This entry was posted in Entertainment, Learning Experience, Special Event and tagged , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply


You are commenting using your account. Log Out /  Change )

Google photo


Twitter picture


Facebook photo


Connecting to %s