Has anyone had experience having their child modeled for print or
television ads??
Specifically-National Talent Associates??
Curious if there are any stories out there, good or bad.
Thanks in Advance,
Pat
My son is a baby model and we have had mostly good experiences. On one
occasion however during an audition for a McDonald's commercial, the ad
people squeezed his face rather roughly -- which turned out to be the
key "joke" in the commercial. My wife intervened angrily and that was
it: "Next!" (We're vegetarians anyway, bad karma...) That was about the
worst of it. Conversely, sometimes the catering at these things is quite
excellent...
As a Canadian, I don't know anything about National Talent Associates,
but one word of warning: if an agency asks you for money, for example to
make your kid a "portfolio", it's a scam -- it may be legal, but it's
still a scam. A real reputable agency wants only snapshots of your child
to ascertain whether they have the look they want and then gets paid by
taking a percentage of what the child makes (often 15%). Also, in Canada
at least, the money is legally the child's in order to discourage
parents from exploiting their children. We plan to wind the whole thing
down when he gets to school.
I had mixed feelings when we started but in the end it has been fun and
the money is a great nest egg for college etc -- money that we wouldn't
have been able to save otherwise. And it certainly is a blast to see
your baby plastered everywhere, and to then shamelessly brag to all and
sundry. When I opened the newspaper on my birthday and there he was, on
two full-page ads, it was pretty incredible. Read More
