Actors who participated in a First City Monument Bank (FCMB) television commercial in May, are yet to receive their wages from Insight Communications, the advert agency behind the project.

The actors told FIJ in August that they waited three months to receive their fees, but the agents who recommended them for the job kept saying the agency had not paid.

Bolaji Kolawole (not real name), one of the actors, said he signed a contract stating the company would pay him N250,000 no later than one month after shooting the advert, but the company told FIJ the agreement had a clause mandating it to pay within one month after the client approves the copy.

The actors did not get a copy of their contracts, and the company would not avail it to FIJ, but Kolawole and others have now gone four months without their wages.

READ ALSO: ‘Go to the Police’ — Filmmaker Tolu Agienoji Responds to Actor’s Demand for Unpaid N10,000

“On April 29, we visited the Insight Communication office at 17/19 Oduduwa Street, Ikeja GRA for an audition ahead of the shoot,” Kolawole told FIJ in August. “They told us it would be for FCMB, and checked to see if we had done conflicting ads.

“After vetting, we showed up again on May 9 for the shoot, signed our contracts and spent time working on it. When we finished, they took our account details and said they would pay us within a month.

“When June came and they did not pay, we started asking questions. All the agents who brought us to the set were telling us the company had not paid. We thought the agents were the problem, but we later realised the company was withholding our money.”

After speaking with the aggrieved actors, FIJ reached out to Insight Communications. On August 9, the FIJ called Kayode Ajayi, one of the agency’s managers.

Ajayi said the actors did their jobs, but the client had not given feedback on the copy before then. However, he assured FIJ he got positive news from the client on that day and was preparing an invoice to get payment from them so he could pay the actors.

During a telephone interview, Ajayi said, “There is no breach of contract in this case because what happened was there was a bit of a delay in the delivery of the commercial because of some technicalities, and we passed that information to the agents.

“What the contract states is that, one month after approval, payments would be made. As I speak with you, the client is yet to make payment. I am on my way to the office right now because they requested for it, and maybe because they want to process payment to the agents, so there hasn’t been any breach of contract in this case.”

When FIJ asked if the actors would not be paid if the advert was not approved, he said, “No. If the ad is never approved, we would pay a rejection fee to everybody. But this is not the case. The client has approved the ad and we have sent an invoice for the payment. As soon as the payment comes in, we pay everybody. There is no time we have done a job and we did not pay everybody.

“If there is a problem on the job, there is a problem. I’m not hiding from the fact that we are owing these people. I don’t think we will owe them for up to a month. We have sent the invoice and are expecting payment any moment from now.”

On Monday, one month after Ajayi told FIJ of the ad approval, the actors were still demanding answers. The company had not paid their wages.

“I have bills to pay, I have a family to take care of,” Kolawole told FIJ via text message on Friday.

“I did not enter into a contract with FCMB or any agent. My contract is with Insight Communications.”
The post Insight Communications, an Ad Agency, Owes Actors Who Starred in FCMB Advert in May appeared first on Foundation For Investigative Journalism.