Advertising

Scabs star in Survivor ads

by Graham Smith

Reebok, the Massachusetts athletic-shoe manufacturer and international champion of human rights, is seeing its sponsorship of the CBS program Survivor pay off -- big time. In order to produce its ads, however, the Canton-based company has created a questionable alliance that might make Survivor champ Richard Hatch proud.

The Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists have been on strike since May 1. Essentially, the union is looking for a new contract to extend the system that pays actors a residual fee each time a commercial airs. Advertisers want a deal that would pay actors a flat fee for the same work. Until the strike is resolved, members are refusing to perform in new commercials. Enter Reebok's newest team.

In television spots, they're "Nate and Brian" -- accidental survivors whose misadventures leave them snakebitten, covered in leeches, and drinking their own urine. In real life, they're Jake Safford and Don Lee, non-union actors hired by New York agency Berlin, Cameron & Partners. Also non-union are some of the island castaways from Survivor, including B.B. and Stacey, who've come across the two in the most recent versions of the ads.

SAG/AFTRA Boston director Donna Sommers says she's disappointed in both Reebok and the actors: "People who've chosen to do ads and be scabs undermine the union's efforts to get a decent living for all actors."

Reebok's director of advertising, John Wardley, says that the company usually uses union talent, but that it was in a tough spot: "We were in a situation where we'd signed a contract with Survivor back in September, before the strike, and we had to run with it." And the company has been shooting new ads as recently as this week. SAG/AFTRA argues that Reebok could have used union talent if the company had just signed an interim agreement -- essentially, the last offer the union put on the table.

Reebok's Web site touts the company's commitment to improving the lot of the world's workers, and even states, "Reebok will seek business partners that share its commitment to the right of employees to establish and join organizations of their own choosing. Reebok recognizes and respects the right of all employees to organize and bargain collectively."

Sommers says the words are admirable, but that Reebok's "Lights, Camera . . . Action!" speaks louder. "This is a clear statement of where their principles are," she says, "and that's at the bottom line."

Federal mediators have ordered the unions and advertisers back to the bargaining table on September 13. As for the two actors who star in Reebok's campaign, they could find themselves stranded after the strike concludes. The unions say that actors who accept work during the commercial strike may be barred from ever becoming members in the future.