Advertisers have made their first approach to actors’
representatives to discuss the month-long Equity strike, which showed
its first signs of disrupting commercials production this week.
The Advertising Film and Videotape Producers’ Association, the Institute
of Practitioners in Advertising and the Incorporated Society of British
Advertisers have signed a joint letter suggesting meetings on 6 and 7
November with the actors’ agents body, the Personal Managers’
Association.
The request, which bypasses Equity, asks for ’the opportunity of talking
face-to-face about the real issues at stake and hearing your views
direct. A mutual exchange of views can only be to the good and, at the
least, will help us both to understand our respective positions.’
Speaking through Equity, the PMA confirmed it would be happy to attend
the talks, but would leave negotiating any agreement to the union. The
association refuses to put forward any clients for castings.
Martin Brown, an Equity spokesman, said the letter was a sign the strike
was beginning to bite, coming in the same week that the union claimed it
had leafleted casting sessions for Weetabix and Nationwide featuring
non-Equity members.
He said: ’Acting isn’t a closed shop but it is unusual for agencies to
attempt to cast off the streets for ads. One person outside the Weetabix
session told us they had been approached in a pub and another in a
station, which just isn’t normal practice.’
Agencies, however, are bullish. A spokesperson at Lowe Howard-Spink said
the presence of non-Equity members at the Weetabix casting had nothing
to do with the strike and were for roles as extras, which are often cast
using non-union members.
