Striking actors zero in on ad convention
Pickets, flyovers buzz ANA meeting
The confab, sponsored by the Assn. of National Advertisers and attended by several hundred corporate execs, drew picketing by several dozen strikers and flyovers by airplanes with banners reading "Corporate greed."
Los Angeles-based activists from the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television & Radio Artists said it was crucial to get their message to top advertisers, particularly with resumption of negotiations this week in Gotham.
"We felt it was important to point out the hypocrisy of the ad industry staying at a luxury hotel and dining on lobster while actors are losing their homes and health insurance," strike captain Julie Sanford said.
Members of SAG and AFTRA, which struck advertisers on May 1, also noted that the theme of the conference -- "Brand Building in the New E-conomy" -- shows that advertisers are fully cognizant of the Internet's lucrative potential for advertising. The unions are demanding jurisdiction over the Internet, and the issue was a major factor in the collapse of the most recent negotiations with advertisers three weeks ago.
Advertisers have offered only to conduct a three-year study of the issue, claiming that the economic impact is not yet fully understood. But activists have pointed out that such consumer giants as Procter & Gamble -- targeted for a boycott of its Ivory soap, Crest and Tide brands due to using non-union actors -- have been spending heavily on Web advertising in recent years.
P&G chief executive A.G. Lafley was among speakers at the conference, which will conclude today, and said the Web was a critical way for corporations to communicate with the people who buy and use their products.
In other developments, the unions plan to begin hitting Ford Motor Co. plants in the Detroit area this week due to the automaker's decision to use non-union actors in spots after promising several months ago that it would not do so.
