Letters

The SAG/AFTRA Strike: Where’s the Coverage?
As a graphic designer who has turned to commercial voiceover to make a living, I’ve had a unique interest in Adweek over the years. When the SAG/AFTRA strike began more than two months ago, I wondered what your take on the issue would be. I’ve since discovered that you prefer the “head in the sand” approach.
Especially poignant: Your coverage of the AICP Awards [Creative, June 12], where the most creative ads and their creators were honored–the only mention of the strike was a reference made to “actors protesting loudly” outside the building.
Is the irony lost on everyone that the very people who bring the creative directors’ visions to palpable reality–namely, the commercial actors and voiceover artists in the honored ads–are the same people who are being told to accept $500 a spot and be happy they’re working at all?
Is anyone at Adweek aware of the time-consuming process an actor goes through to get even one paying spot?
Would anyone in the rarefied world of advertising stay in the field for one day without the incentive of an eventual promotion or financial payoff?
Everyone deserves the promise of a viable career, even actors. It’s time for the advertisers and producers to step out of their self-congratulatory haze and listen to the “rabble” outside the gates. What they may lose in elan, they will gain in integrity.
Bob Loza
Graphic design consultant
Cyrano Creative Resources
Burbank, Calif.
Editor’s note: The article you mention in your letter was a story about the AICP Awards show, not about the actors’ strike. The strike and the issues facing both the actors and the advertisers have been discussed extensively in several Adweek articles (see May 1, May 15, May 22, June 12, June 19 and June 26). We agree that “everyone deserves the promise of a viable career, even actors.”