• WSJ (paid subscription required), Tuesday, March 14, 2006 12 PM

Marketers are turning to an unlikely source to create and produce minimovies for their products that will be viewed on the Internet and other emerging media outlets: students at New York University. The list includes major marketers like Ford Motor, Verizon, Heineken, and Unilever, which recently commissioned the students to create a film for its Axe deodorant and body spray. Part of an NYU program called ProMotion Pictures, students includes those attending the school's Kanbar Institute of Film & Television as well as M.B.A. candidates from the Stern School of Business. The Kanbar kids handle screenwriting and directing, while the budding M.B.A.s act as producers, ensuring that the production is completed on time and on budget. "It's been an uphill battle to convince entertainment companies about the value of an M.B.A. degree, but this kind of practical student experience gets their attention," says first-year M.B.A. student Jonas Greenberg. "It's good for the film students, too, because they're exposed to the business side of projects that may seem like a necessary evil but that they'll have to deal with at the studios."

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