STOKED youth are creating a Mountain Dew commercial with Lil Wayne this summer.
How would you feel if one of the biggest companies in the world wanted to work with you?
Humbled? Honored? Excited? All of the above!
I was asked to come up to Pepsi headquarters in March to attend a meeting with some brand executives and their ad agency.
They pulled out a bunch of binded presentations, fired up a flat screen, and were pitching me.
Confused, I thought, why are they selling me?
Apparently they saw something in our programs that connected to their brand. As a result of our program, our youth are creative, driven, and motivated to succeed.
They had this in mind when they wanted to work with STOKED. Essentially, they pitched STOKED the opportunity for our youth to create a Mountain Dew commercial starring rapper Lil Wayne this summer as part of their Deweezy campaign.
Kicked off last month, our kids have been working diligently learning about the creative process of making a commercial. They were putting in 8-10 hour days and loving it.
Their level of access is unbelievable. They are being mentored from everyone from the VP of Marketing at Pepsi to copywriters to producers.
One of the conditions of the deal with Pepsi was that we create an actual summer program around this.
So it’s not just a program where kids make a commercial.
Along the way, we are working on professional skills to help the Deweezy kids get better at time management, communication, presentation skills, and professional behavior.
We’re also skateboarding and doing some community service in between.
One of the most exciting aspects of this program is that we are going to Miami to shoot the commercial.
Check out this webisode where our kids are beginning the process of creating the commercial.
Follow the journey by checking #deweezy on twitter and instagram!
You forgot to mention that, through this program, one day we worked specifically on personal presentation skills and how to make a good first impression, and then that same day one of these kids went out and got himself a summer job. Boom!