West 1 Promotions in Newcastle

[Joe Rispoli]

NEWCASTLE Evening Cronicle
Fame warning Mar 11 2006
By Adam Jupp, The Evening Chronicle
A model agency exposed for using misleading adverts was due on Tyneside today. West 1 Castings Ltd was rapped by the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) for telling punters it could get roles on soaps such as EastEnders and The Bill.
And it bragged in ads placed in local newspapers up and down the country about being one of the leading forces in showbusiness booking.
But investigations by the ASA revealed it could not prove any such claims and ordered it to change its promotional material.
Now the Chronicle can reveal that the firm is in Newcastle this weekend, hoping to find budding models and actors who could each have to fork out almost £200.
Its new advert states punters will get a free photo test shot and a copy of it at the two-day event at Newcastle’s Thistle Hotel.
Story continues
ADVERTISEMENT
A Chronicle reporter rang the number on the ad and was told: “Just turn up at the weekend looking damn good. It costs you nothing for your photograph.”
Our reporter, asking if any charges were involved, was told: “If you get through and you get taken on we do charge £179, but that is refundable if you get no offer of work.”
West 1 charges for introducing customers to another agency which may also charge customers an up-front fee. Ten days ago, the ASA upheld a complaint about West 1. It referred to a leaflet stating: “We would like to introduce West 1 Promotions. For nearly a decade we have been one of the UK’s leading management companies for modelling, fashion, catwalk, catalogue, film, television, stage acting, dance and promotional work for all ages.”
It continued: “Our role as an independent promotions company is to find new faces for model agencies in the UK. A few of the recent credits our agencies have are as follows: – Film/T.V: EastEnders, The Bill, The Broken Man, Midsomer Murders, Ruth Rendell, Bond 19 (The World is Not Enough), Love Honour & Obey, Happy Birthday Shakespeare.”
And the ruling stated: “The ASA considered that the leaflet implied West 1 Promotions’ agencies had recently found work for their clients on the films and TV programmes listed. We considered West 1 Promotions had not proved its agencies had recently found work for their clients on the productions quoted in the leaflet.
“We concluded that the leaflet was misleading. We told West 1 Promotions not to refer to their agencies’ credits in future advertising unless they had documentary evidence to prove that their agencies’ clients had worked on the productions listed.”
Actor Clive Hurst is campaigning for up-front fees like those demanded by West 1, to be scrapped.
He said: “It leaves people wide open for agencies to take these fees. Some people might get a job out of it, but many others won’t.
“Even if you got one job, you wouldn’t be able to claim your money back. But just one job isn’t enough to re-coup what you’ve paid out.”
Jamie Palmer, a manager for West 1, said: “Our scouts and managers have been in the business for about 15 years and that was misinterpreted, so we have altered our paperwork. We never say we give work out. We just send people to agencies.
“The ASA exists to monitor advertising and things like that. If someone misinterprets something then we have to live with that.”

[Author]

Posts