Over 100 people rushed to the Burlington Hotel in Dublin with the hope to get catalog, catwalk or advertising work. The reason was that Regardez model management agency had announced a modeling competition with free photo trials.
You could see all kinds of people there – parents dragging along their photogenic children, older people in dire need of money and/or a career change and young starry-eyed women. They all had one thing in common – the disappointment that the campaign wasn’t actually free.
Regardez published an ad for the event, within which the only indicator that a certain sum would have to be given were the last words about “the agency’s respective fees being applicable”. The photos were indeed free, but there was a fee of EUR 270 for being registered in the agency’s catalog. When asked the manager of the agency assured that those who didn’t get work through the agency would be reimbursed in full. Supposedly this is their first campaign in search of “local talent”. Notwithstanding that fact the agency has faced accusations of misleading advertising in the past.
Be that as it may, it is saddening that people are so misled about the nature of modeling work in general. They tend to see the good side only – their faces on billboards, a truckload of money, traveling all over the world and getting the best tables in clubs and restaurants. Some people do not consider the issues of severe, unhealthy dieting, pressure and jetlag. Plus, there is the potential outcome of not making it in this field, coming as the first disappointment. The manager of the agency commented that he wouldn’t take money from people who obviously didn’t have a chance.
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