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 Labels: toddlers modeling
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