Chase Zreet's success story can be told one of two ways.
There's the short version: A Dallas guy in his mid-20s posted a wacky video online called "Cover Letter" aimed at getting a job at advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy. The video went viral and Zreet scored his dream job. Soon, he'll pack up his Dallas townhome and move to NYC.
And the longer version: That now-viral video, of Zreet spitting rhymes and asking "can I write for Sprite?" was not an instant hit. Zreet shot the video in the Dallas neighborhoods of Deep Ellum, Oak Cliff and Lake Highlands in October 2017, posted it at Thanksgiving, and waited for the creative directors at W+K to notice. They didn't. Finally, he emailed them in January. Then, a friend posted the video on Reddit and the video started taking off online. It was only after the video eclipsed more than a half-a-million views online in three days that he got the interview, then the job. And then a profile in Adweek.
The short version is sexier. But the longer version is a better look at how real life works: Success takes time, patience and, in Zreet's case, a really weird idea.
"This has been the dumbest and most fortunate thing that has ever happened to me," says Zreet, who currently works at Dallas ad agency Firehouse.
Today, his video has been viewed online more than 780,000 times. The irony is not lost that it was aimed at just two people: the creative directors on the Sprite account at W+K.
"That was part of the charm of the thing," Zreet says.
In the video, Zreet rides a hoverboard and raps into the camera about his skills as a copywriter. He wears alternating bright green and bright yellow suits, accented by a gold chain holding a lemon or a lime, an obvious play to Sprite. The content is amusing and puzzling. And, as Zreet is happy to point out, "it's dumb." Sometimes the simplest ads are.
Zreet's friend Jeremy Bartel filmed the video, and most of the shots were taken on the street in Dallas or at Zreet's uncle's pool in Lake Highlands.
And those suits? They're cheapies from Amazon.com. "Amazon was the backbone of our prop department," Zreet jokes. "The chain, the lemons, the limes. Those glasses ... Amazon, Amazon, Amazon. Amazon."
No matter. He made "a great ad," says Jimm Lasser, one of the creative directors Zreet was trying to impress.
"We especially loved the way he could float and rap at the same time. I predict that our industry will start to see more ads from candidates pitching themselves to agencies. Apparently, it works," Lasser says.
And while Zreet is happy to have scored a new job, he says his few minutes of fame were a little strange. "I'm a copywriter, man," he says. "I just want to write ads."
It has shown him the power of the internet — and of embracing absurdity. "There was a lot of nervousness, awareness and trepidation that came with nailing the right tone," he says. Because, remember: This was basically a public job interview.
The video's success came down to this, Zreet says: "It didn't deliver when people expected it to suck."
