GLOBAL – December 17, 2013 – When 20th Century Fox set aside their marketing budget for the upcoming film, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, they probably weren’t expecting it to go halfway around the world, feeding survivors of the strongest typhoon in recorded history.
But that’s exactly what happened when they asked filmmaker Casey Neistat to do a promotional video for the Ben Stiller movie. Instead of doing a video about the film, Neistat instead flew to the Philippines, bought relief goods, rented buses, distributed them to survivors in Tacloban, and caught it all on camera.
In the video, Neistat shared the email that the film studio sent him: "We wanna run a campaign under the concept ‘Live your dreams.’ The collective theme of this initiative will be to motivate, inspire, and give people a catalyst to do things they’ve never done."
In reply, Neistat said, "Here’s my concept: give me the budget, I’ll go to the Philippines and spend every penny helping people in need."
Amazingly, 20th Century Fox and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty agreed to let Neistat spend their budget for the promotional video–all $25,000 of it–on relief for the typhoon survivors.
Ultimately, it proved to be money well spent. In the end, Neistat’s efforts and the film studio’s dollars provided over 10,000 meals, tools to 35 villages, and basic medicine to local organizations.
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