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Jacquie Golding-Duffy
Chairperson of the National Association of Model Agencies, Gaenor Becker says standard modelling rates range from anything between R200 an hour for a photographic shoot to R500 for every media in which that photograph is used.
The money paid to Ricardo Adonis for his time was well below market-related prices, she said. Ricardo’s pictures are being used in the outdoor campaign by the Olympic Bid Committee in its attempt to secure the Cape Town 2004 Olympic Bid.
“Apart from the hourly rate, for every media that the boy’s photograph is used on, there is an additional fee of R500.
“If he is being used on bus shelters and billboards, he should be paid for each media. If he is being used on magazine covers [Ricardo’s picture was used on the cover of the Olympic Bid’s official magazine] he should be getting an additional R300,” Becker said.
According to Chikane Hunt Lascaris, Ricardo was paid R500 entitling the Bid committee to use his photograph for a full year.
“There is no law protecting children in the advertising industry. Agencies should be careful not to misuse children by insisting on, among other things, overtime. Contracts should be explained in detail to both the children and their guardians,” Becker said.
Saatchi and Saatchi clients services director Rodney Leach says it is not his job to “dictate to other agencies how they conduct their business”. However, Leach says he knows that market-related prices for securing models ranged from anything between R300 and R400 an hour.
Eurospace managing director Darryl Bernstein said advertising agencies “often use anything and everything to reflect lifestyles”. He said he did “not see anything fundamentally wrong” with the fee paid to Ricardo. “If Cape Town secures the Games and impoverished children such as Ricardo benefit, then I have no problem with the fact that he was used in the campaign.
“The rules of advertising are such that you use whatever you can to make whatever point you need to make,” Bernstein said.
Chief executive officer and executive creative director for Jupiter Drawing Room Graham Warsop says if the advertisement’s punch-line is that the lot of impoverished people will be turned around by the Olympic Games coming to Cape Town, then the agency should be able to defend that line. “I do believe there will be tangible benefits for the disadvantaged children and one cannot confuse how much the child was paid with the overall message of upliftment,” he said.
‘If the Bid results in social programmes being developed which in turn benefits street children then I have no problem with the campaign. If the Cape Town community are being made aware of the benefits, then shout it from the rooftops.”
Young and Rubicam managing director for business development in Africa Doug Maritz says it is customary that most people donate their services for campaigns dedicated to public upliftment and empowerment. “If the child in question was paid a token fee in the light of many people donating their services, then there is nothing wrong with that. If, however, other people involved were being paid market-related fees then the child should also have been paid the normal rates.”
Ogilvy and Mather broadcast director Sherry Bush says it is a question of “legality versus morality”.
“The child should be fully informed of what is being planned with his photographs. If the advertisements are used on billboards or flighted then the child has to be sourced and a contract finalised before anything goes ahead,” Bush said.
Executive director of the Association of Marketeers Derrick Dickens says there are “laid down model fees”.
“If the child in question was not paid the correct rates as laid down then it is exploitative. There should be no difference between someone who came through an agency and someone taken off the streets. They are both doing the same job,” Dickens said.
@SPORT