Samsung "Do what you can't" (2017) 1:00 (USA)

Casey Neistat isn't an Oscar winner. He wasn't even at the awards. But this ad did air during the awards. And he's here to let us know that he and his fellow Youtubers are very important anyway. Because they do stuff, man.
They don't do stuff because they have to but because they want to. I'm pretty sure no one held guns to the cast of Moonlight or La La Land to make them act, but k. When people say they can't, Casey says, we respond with "just watch me." Because these makers are really doing a lot. Especially when brands pay them to. Samsung's new campaign called "The Rest Of Us," wants to turn the spotlight on the regular people who are out there creating culture. And while there are certainly tons of people with phones running around out there creating (calling it culture is up for debate) that doesn't necessarily mean they're all just altruistic about it. Whether they're doing it for the likes and shares or in the hopes they'll get picked up by an agent, or become rich or get commercial endorsements, no one creates in a vacuum and they certainly don't create without an audience in mind.
More importantly, this ad is quite hypocritical. If it really wanted to celebrate the "norms" than why choose a high profile influencer to do the talking for them? And also to flat out lie? Neistat tells us that "we don't have award shows, but we do have our cameras." O rly? From 2006-2008 Youtube did have an award show. And in fact, Casey has won several other awards. The Independent Spirit Award. The Shorty Awards, GQ Man of The Year. And last but not least the Streamy Awards, or The Streamies, which is part of Dick Clark productions. And Casey won it. Here's his acceptance speech.
Perhaps more to the point, is that as well-meaning and empowering as this ad wants to be, it's still brought to you by a Giant Electronics Company whose products are seen in almost every frame of the spot. Samsung as patron of the arts is a bit hard to believe. It's also telling that despite the platitudes about what it means to be a Creator™ i don't really remember anything striking about this ad except for Casey in his well-tailored tux. I vaguely remember seeing drones, and a collage of a tree or something, and the obligatory skateboard-while-stuff-explodes-or--turns-into-color shot but the rest of it looked like something that would have been on Youtube back in 2008. In other words, I've already forgotten it.

Client: Samsung
Agency: Wieden+Kennedy