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Original poster

Milka ad casting call - awful

230 replies

Dippypippy1980 · 11/08/2019 10:50

I have just red the really creepy casting call for a little girl to advertise milka chocolate.

While there is lots and lots wrong with the call, I am outraged by the no red hair. I have red hair, so does my daughter. We will now be boycotting* this product.

But it has got me wondering, why are unkind comments about red heads still a thing? I endured nasty comments through my childhood, and within the last decade distance myself from a friend who was making nasty comments about a friends baby with red hair. What the hell is wrong with people.

Why do people who would be (quite rightly) outraged by comments about skin colour think it’s okay to target people because of hair colour?

OP posts:
Daisychainsgetbroken · 12/08/2019 23:03

Red hair thing is over sensitive. All acting/theatre/dance castings have some kind of look in mind.

The advert in general though you are right is creepy and oddly worded.

MdNdD · 12/08/2019 23:14

Is this ad not a weird twisted joke?

NameChange84 · 12/08/2019 23:23

This is typical of Casting briefs.
They are very physically descriptive. The industry, especially the commercial industry, is very looks focussed.

This brief will not have been written by Milka, it will be written by the casting director or an assistant. No point in boycotting Milka when it’s not them that wrote it.

Sometimes briefs like this get put out because they have a red head or overweight child in a previous or future campaign and they want a different angle.

I’m not saying it’s right, I hate the industry with a passion having worked in it for many years. I also despise child modelling having been on the other side of it.

When you are in the industry you are not a person, you are just an image. You quickly get used to it.

Tonnerre · 12/08/2019 23:24

Mitebiteatnite and others: I would not want my child within a mile of the ( definitely) guy who wrote this spec

It's in fact definitely a woman who wrote it.

SheilaBruce · 13/08/2019 00:30

That is not a legit ad. That is a scam or worse.

Do not engage with that ad!!!

Orlandointhewilderness · 13/08/2019 00:40

Ima redhead- I wear what I want! The only colours I really avoid are bright red, orange and yellow. I like pink (gentle pink, not barbie pink!) and deep red can look very striking.

TayoTheLittleBus · 13/08/2019 00:42

Yeeesh that ad. I wouldn’t let my daughters anywhere near this sort of thing

They are angelic as fuck by the way.

TayoTheLittleBus · 13/08/2019 00:44

God I love Milka though 😞

inuk2004 · 13/08/2019 07:12

Reads like a peado's wish list Hmm

It also had this in there “No overweight children as this is advertising chocolate.”. Nothing like selling the 'dream'. Perhaps if it did have overweight children in it we might see less overweight children?

For me it just seems bloody creepy as well as being more than a bit short sighted as there are a lot of stunning red heads, young and old, in the world. Sounds like someone’s personal proclivities are getting in the way of their business.

ShatnersWig · 13/08/2019 07:52

That is not a legit ad

SheilaBruce Please don't come on threads spouting forth on things of which you know nothing. This was a legitimate ad. It was posted by a female casting director. Despite me mentioning this in the thread several times, posters still made comments like "I would not want my child within a mile of the (definitely) guy who wrote this spec" which were bullshit.

Spotlight (casting directory that posted the ad) has made a statement. Equity (actors union) has made a statement. Hell, even bloody Milka itself has made a statement.

This WAS a legit casting ad. The female casting director who was named and shamed on Twitter apparently has some previous form for poor choices of words in adverts. The moment she was named, she deactivated her Twitter account. These are FACTS.

But hey, let's not let facts get in the way of a good frothing at the mouth.

NameChange84 · 13/08/2019 08:11

Exactly @ShatnersWig well said!

And a lot of people have said things along the lines of “I wouldn’t let my child near that” etc.

The reality is this was not an open call. It was a casting breakdown, submitted to Spotlight which is a casting website. In this case, it would only be children’s agents who would have seen this breakdown - it was never designed for parents or children themselves to access. Some unrepresented adult actors are able to see breakdowns if they’ve met Spotlight criteria (training at certain Drama Schools, having at least three recent professional credits) but by and large it’s mainly agents themselves who would be reading a casting breakdown like that and submitting their clients for it. Someone who has access to Spotlight screenshotted and posted this on Twitter. But I can promise you, this type of wording is not rare on casting websites. God help you if you are a female aged between 16-24.

JemimaPuddlePeacock · 13/08/2019 11:17

To be fair it’s written so poorly with some glaring inconsistencies (that would have been picked up on and edited with even the slightest of care), I don’t blame anyone for assuming it’s not written by a professional and is actually a scam. Hard to believe someone whose job it is to write casting calls signed that off for public view.

NC4AntiOuting · 13/08/2019 12:03

@ShatnersWig and @NameChange84 have it right.

A female casting director posted the breakdown on a casting platform,, and it was removed from their platform, albeit not quickly enough, by the platform owners who have fully acknowledged and apologised for their late reaction and the error they made in allowing it to be published.

It's a bit like here - or even more like Facebook - some idiot says something stupid/offensive/illegal and it takes a while before the mods get to it to edit or delete it.

Onetwistedsista · 13/08/2019 12:12

@PaperFlowers4 what you said. Im also in the industry and this is nothing! They can be extremely harsh in this business so no place for over sensitive individuals. Not saying you are OP. But that's 'show business '. Deal or leave and do something else

Propertyofhood · 13/08/2019 12:14

Ew, is that really typical of a child modelling casting call? I mean I get that they need to be really specific to get the exact image they are after, but that really does read exactly like a paedo's wish list, as a PP said.

Surely a professional casting director read over it and thought... Hmm sounds a bit pervy, I'm just gonna tweak that a bit?

Propertyofhood · 13/08/2019 12:17

Im also in the industry and this is nothing!

Seriously?! That is totally typical?

Christ on a bike, no wonder sexual abuse is so fucking rife in the industry and in wider society.

Hithere12 · 13/08/2019 12:47

Of that creepy borderline obsession with a girl being “beautiful, cute” mentioned dozens of times you’re worried about the hair colour preferences?

Hithere12 · 13/08/2019 12:49

I remember Danielle Westbrook saying that abuse is rife towards children in the entertainment industry and she was abused by numerous men. Doesn’t surprise me at all the way that disgusting advert is written!! The person woo made that advert is clearly some sort of freak.

Original poster
Dippypippy1980 · 13/08/2019 13:01

No. I said above countless times I have accepted I am being oversensitive.

I have also covered the creepy references.

Read the full thread please.

OP posts:
Hithere12 · 13/08/2019 13:07

Read the full thread please

😂 WHAT?!

8 pages? I have a busy life

Original poster
Dippypippy1980 · 13/08/2019 13:43

Me too. I should stop😊. Don’t care anymore anyway.

OP posts:
Tonnerre · 13/08/2019 13:44

If this is "nothing" for this injury, it is a very good thing that it has been publicised, because that is not an acceptable way for any industry to conduct itself.

TheFlis12345 · 13/08/2019 13:53

I work in advertising and have done numerous castings for kids, but never seen anything like this! Yes they may specify build, how old they look, hair colour and so forth (they may need to look typical of certain countries / fit into a ‘family’ line up / add diversity against those already hired etc) but this is written in a very odd way. It’s not typical of anywhere I have worked with.

As for kids being mistreated, maybe in TV or back in the day but everything is extremely tightly regulated for kids acting these days and I have never even heard mentions of anything inappropriate.

Hithere12 · 13/08/2019 13:58

As for kids being mistreated, maybe in TV or back in the day but everything is extremely tightly regulated for kids acting these days and I have never even heard mentions of anything inappropriate

Stuff like this doesn’t come out until years later and a lot of pedophiles like Saville are attracted to the industry to get access to kids. That advert was written clearly by a pedophile. Normal people don’t think or write that way about children.

TheFlis12345 · 13/08/2019 14:27

It was poorly written but I think to say she must be a paedophile us a bit much. But even if the writer was, they would never have access to a child on a set, by law they always have a chaperone present (usually a parent) and no adult is left alone with a child.