Have you come across these commercials?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUM2hqKYuk8
Do you also think at first glance that they look incredible fake, and filled with people that may or may not have any idea what they are doing or talking about? Well, the other day we stumbled across this post on reddit, IamA “Real People” from one of the Chevy commercials, and were quite curious.
As much as we wish it was by the guy who came up with these ‘realistic’ versions of these commercials.
It was not, and the AMA was done by someone who was actually in a normal commercial, here are some takeaways:
We were invited to a “Design Clinic” in Sonoma Wine Country on a Sunday.
We simply applied to be in a video shoot for a “design clinic”. When we got there we were completely handled by the production team who couldn’t tell us anything.
When we were “applying” to be used for a video shoot, we were told to answer questions about our design tastes and visual preferences.
We were all under the impression this was supposed to be something fancy.
We got a couple hundred dollars for showing up. A visa gift card on arrival. And a check at the end. Given a W2 form to fill out on the spot.
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A couple months later, my gf received an email from someone telling her they needed the rest of her info ASAP so they could sign her up for SAG to be used on broadcast. (This was how we found out the commercial was ready, and put on youtube). We made ZERO money off the youtube showings.
My girlfriend made a BUTTLOAD of money from the broadcast airings. I made almost nothing.
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[Could you define “buttload”?]
More than a penny, less than a million.
(it was 5 digits, almost 6)
