Vine Star Jerome Jarre Says He Turned Down A $1 Million Advertising Deal

    The man famous for street-prank Vines made a video about how he refused the money to stay true to his ideals and travel the world.

    You know Jerome Jarre, the 24-year-old French social media star with huge followings on Vine and Snapchat?

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    Well, he claimed that he just turned down the offer of $1 million from a New York advertising agency because he wanted to "stay true" to his mission of self-discovery. He posted this fascinating video last week:

    View this video on YouTube

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    The set-up for the video is that he was invited to a big New York advertising agency (he doesn't say which one) for an important meeting.

    In the video, Jarre is told he can't film the meeting, so he wears a hidden microphone and hides a camera in the room.

    When and how he was able to hide the camera is unclear.

    Then the offer is made – on the strict condition that Jarre stays in New York City for 12 months.

    Jarre then tells his entire life story.

    Then he appeared on the Ellen show, got mobbed in a shopping centre in Iceland by hundreds of fans, and it became clear something big was happening.

    And back in the meeting room, Jarre's voiceover says: "My entire life is about to change again. I am about to become a millionaire. That's when something deep down tells me to think twice."

    The video ends with him flying to Mexico, where he's been uploading and appearing in Vines this week:

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    The video ends with this motivational message.

    Despite the hippy rhetoric though, he's a savvy, switched-on businessman.

    He has an up-to-date LinkedIn profile, he's appeared on the cover of Adweek, and he's done Vine campaigns for General Electric.

    If there's one thing he does know, it's how to market both himself and others – all with that irrepressible smile on his face.

    Jarre told BuzzFeed News that he couldn't reveal the name of the brand or the agency in question because he would "get sued", but he insisted the offer portrayed in the video was genuine.

    "But yes, real deal, real money, real companies," he said. "This is not Hollywood, this is just my life."