Chris and Luke are not hulking figures. They neither look like football players nor have an athletic scholarship for college. That's why I'm confused when they answer my first question. Chris starts:
"Ever since we met in middle school, we've wanted to get big."
"Oh," I say, impressed, "so you lift, you lift weights."
"No, no," Chris, 5'4", says, "like famous big stars."
"Or our first fame anyway," Luke adds.
This is how the questions seem to go today; there are follow-ups, there are clarifications, I need things repeated back to me. The two high-schoolers sitting across from me do not play football or lacrosse or lift weights or get straight A's in all the APs but they have been on The Today Show and Good Morning America and all the local television stations, because they are getting full rides to college. They have not filled out the circles and numbered slots on a financial aid form. No, they e-mail rock stars and Mandy Moore. They hang out in media green rooms.
Next September they will become the first ever corporate-sponsored college students in American history.
And now, in a media-relations firm in a white colonial brick house in a white upper-middle-class Jersey suburb called Haddonfield, I'm wondering just how they're doing this--how their parents won't be paying for college--how they're doing this without selling their soul. Because sometimes their sentences end with "whatever the company wants."
Welcome to Chris' and Luke's world, where Mrs. Barth's physics class, Aerosmith and anticipation of the upcoming prom are juggled with negotiations, publicists, lawyers and media appearances. Two weeks ago they finalized a sponsor. "The Pepsi of the banking world," Chris says with a big grin. "There you go," says Luke. Because of contract stipulations, they are not allowed to disclose who the company is. It will be announced in May after they decide on where to go to college.
For these two business wizards--both brown-haired, one short and one lanky, both playing a cool that borders on overconfidence--finance, not football, is the choice sport. Though no coaches or schools actively sought them out for their idea, 15 companies had interest. Some companies, like one for caffeinated mints and the other for an adult job search-source, were inappropriate.
There are fine lines here, misconceptions. "Some people have been saying that I wear a Nike shirt and why don't I get paid?' But someone would only ask that question if they didn't understand what we're doing. We are working with the company," Chris adds vehemently. This is not a handout, says their Web site, Chrisandluke.com: though the goal for the company is to have its name tied to the faces of Chris and Luke, Chris and Luke will be doing much more than being faces of advertisement. They are not walking billboards. They will become peer teachers of financial responsibility. Starting in September, they will have a bi-weekly column in Steamtunnels, a national college publication. They will be giving motivational speeches on financial responsibility, on how not to go into debt, on how the college student can save big just by planning dinner. "We'll teach," Chris says, "we'll explain to people lessons and what we're doing and we'll help the corporation by talking about that company."
Luke adds, "We're the first people to do something like this. It's not just money for free--it's also to promote the company. We're not using our services for a house but for college. Instead of a 40-year-old saying it, it'll be your friend saying it. It'll reach a whole target audience. Friends have merit."
Luke says, too, that it will be mutually beneficial for everyone. "We're getting media attention and they [the corporation] want that--their company is associated with your face.... We had one-on-one meeting[s] with schools like USC to explain our idea, gave them our media packets and it's working for everyone. I mean, when you're on Good Morning America, the school will get attention, the company will get attention, all from Chris and Luke."
Ideally, they would like to go to the same school, but if not, they at least want to be on the West Coast together.
Chris Barrett and Luke McCabe, both 1', met in middle school and have been best friends ever since. Luke used to want to design roller coasters; Chris patented his first invention--shoe stickers for the left and right shoes--when he was six. Both are involved in stocks. Luke is in a band.
Though Chris seems to know, or at least speak of, the intricacies of the idea more than Luke, Luke knows exactly how to finish his sentences. You can tell it's something only best friends can do.
On a hot and muggy day last August, the two seniors went out to California. They saw how expensive University of California at San Diego, Pepperdine and Babson (on their Web site, they rename them "Expensive U.") could be. They wondered why they couldn't pull a quasi-Tiger Woods and get paid for wearing another company's version of the swoosh ("wearing" is a saturated word here, meaning, of course, teaching and working). Two weeks later, when they launched their Web site and KBC Media Relations released the announcement, 10 radio stations called to respond the same day. Two were from London and New Zealand.
"It could have gone either way," says Chris, who's just gotten back inside from answering his cell phone. "The media could have killed or accepted it. I guess they accepted it because everything's been coming to us."
Since then, they have met Sean from Survivor, Ruff Ends, Memphis Bleek and Dr. Ruth, that old "SexLady" sex expert. They have done more than 400 radio shows. CBS Evening News, Fox, ABC, People, Cosmo Girl and David Letterman are samplings of who they've been in touch with. "We are in negotiations," their publicist, Karen, writes on their Media Plan, "with MTV for a Chris and Luke TV show. This is looking extremely good!"
The confidence and excitement and fame is evident, overflowing at times, so there is this fine line: is the media attention a correlation or a cause? "Ever since we met in middle school, we've wanted to get big." It makes me wonder about etymologies and definitions with a sort of Notting Hill relevance: what is normality, what is fame? Luke goes first: "The whole idea is that we want to be normal kids. You don't have to be put up on a pedestal to do something. You don't have to be extra special. The normal American kid--that's what sells us. We don't want to be put above anyone else. We want to show it works if you put your mind to it."
On the issue of being bound and beholden to the company, Chris says that they just couldn't get arrested, because that would be bad for the company. "Our number one concern is to do what we're supposed to do, which is to reach the college level. The company cares if we get arrested, but it's not their number one concern." In other words, their job has limits and they still have freedom despite the 24-7 connection. They will not wear company shirts to frat parties.
From athletic scholarships to financial aid packages, Chris and Luke seem to have taken the next step in college funding. They do not want their idea to be a trend. They believe that it will grow as they grow and that they are merely building the foundation. "College is expensive for everyone," says Chris. And then Luke: "We are the guinea pigs testing it out, and if we're successful... then... soon Pepsi will pick up 50 different kids to be spokesmen for them." Chris finishes: "We'll start a grassroots marketing company at colleges across the country."
Chris and Luke get e-mails from teenagers across the country everyday. Just recently, some girls from Brooklyn invited the 1'-year-old financial Bill Cosbys-of-Jello to their prom. They haven't decided yet.
Life in Haddonfield for Chris and Luke is both small-town and global.
Today, we had to push the interview back a half an hour because they had detention for hanging out in the school's "circle"--the parking lot--during lunch. A few days ago, the interview was postponed because they were talking to an L.A.-based talk show.
In Chris' white Volvo, they listen to Y100.
They open the door for people.
They each wear their hat backwards.
They skipped detention.
When the interview is over, Chris asks what college is like. He asks me quietly, "Is it different from high school"
