Neistat Brothers

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The Neistat Brothers, Van Neistat and Casey Neistat, are filmmakers based in New York City. The pair have created over two hundred films in total, according to their website. They gained international notoriety in late 2003 for a three minute film titled iPod's Dirty Secret, criticizing the battery life of the Apple Computer iPod. That film received national media exposure and brought broad attention on Apple's policy towards iPod battery replacements. They have since created another film titled Bike Thief, documenting their repeated success in stealing their own bike even when making their intentions obvious, free of intervention from passersby. This video gained them coverage on the local Fox morning show, in which they were supposed to demonstrate how easy it would be to steal a bike, but instead played a prank on the host by pretending to accidentally amputate a finger. Her subsequent reaction gained coverage in press and on the internet.

1 iPod's Dirty Secret
- 1.1 Reaction
2 Good Day New York incident
3 References
4 External links

[edit] iPod's Dirty Secret

The video clip begins with a phone call to the Apple Support 800 number, and a conversation between Casey Neistat and an operator named Ryan. Casey explains that after 18 months of use his iPod battery is dead. Ryan suggests that for the cost of labor and shipping to replace the battery Casey is better off buying a new iPod. To the music of NWA's rap song "Express Yourself" the brothers begin a 'public service announcement' campaign to inform consumers about the batteries. Using a stenciled sign reading "iPod's Unreplaceable Battery Only Lasts 18 Months", they spraypaint the warning over iPod advertisement posters on the streets of Manhattan. The film was posted to the internet on November 20, 2003 and within six weeks was downloaded over a million times.

[edit] Reaction

The clip quickly attracted media attention, and the controversy was covered worldwide by over 130 sources, including The Washington Post, Rolling Stone Magazine, Fox News, CBS News and the BBC.

The Washington Post stated that Apple had made the battery replacement "days after" the movie became public.^[1] Fox News set the date of the policy change at "two weeks" after the posting of the clip, and Neil Cavuto called it a 'David and Goliath Story', on Fox News Your World.

Although there has been speculation regarding the impact of the Niestat Brother's film on Apple's decision to expand their iPod battery replacement policy, the brothers publicly reject responsibility for the revision. Apple spokeswoman Natalie Sequeira also denied any connection between the film and the new policy, stating that the policy revison had been in the works for months before the film was released.^[1] Apple officially announced a battery replacement policy on November 14, 2003.^[2]

The film has been both praised as 'wonderfully renegade'^[1] and criticized as 'sensational'.

[edit] Good Day New York incident

They recently pulled a stunt on one of New York City's famous news anchors, Jodi Applegate, on a live broadcast that was supposed to be a demonstration on how easy it is to steal a bicycle on the streets of New York City. Clutching packets of ketchup in his hand, Casey Neistat leaned in with an angle grinder to remove the chain off the bike, squeezed the ketchup on his throat, and screamed for dear life - upsetting the anchor. Read more about it:

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/ent_radio/story/438597p-369522c.html

Here is the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1gmnLX6DoE