A Deal Gone Sour
By Modupe Ogunbayo
Monday, May 05, 2008
Allegations of a breach in a modelling contract tear apart a business partnership
It is a case of a deal gone awry. MTS First Wireless, a telecommunication firm, and some of the models used in the company's on-going advertising campaign are at war over alleged breach of the contract terms. Michael Japeh and Uche Okoli, two out of the four models used for the campaign are protesting the continued use of their images a year after the campaign expired without compensation. They are also unhappy that the MTS is using the contentious advertisements on its website, an electronic medium. This development the argued, is a breach of contract terms because their images were supposed to be used for print adverts only. The models were hired for the project through Hotline Media, a modelling agency.
Japeh, one of the protesting models, argued that only MTS had the right to use their images for print adverts, insisting that the company has no right whatsoever to use them on its website because that was not part of the contract. Lolu Akintujoye, managing director, Hotline Media, said that even though MTS said it had no direct responsibility towards the models, it should be responsible enough to stop using the advertisements after the expiration of the contract. For paying the two models N470,000, MTS has the chance to use the models' images as it deems fit in perpetuity in the print media. But, the adverts were not only used in the print media, they were also used in above-the-line and below-the-line media like recharge cards, keyholders, carrier bags, branded taxi cabs for over two years now. That, he argued, is a breach of the agreement.
All the avenues with which the models and their representative could use to channel their grievances properly to MTS have been blocked. Anytime they wrote letters to 141 Worldwide, the advertising agency that handled the contract it directed them to MTS. And whenever they approached MTS, its usual response was that it had no responsibility towards the models because it transacted business with 141 Worldwide.
Now, Japeh and Akintujoye want MTS to pay N20 million to each model as damages for their unauthorised exposure and pay five million Naira for using each model's image on the web.
The print contract was signed in March 2006. MTS used the services of 141 Worldwide, a Lagos-based advertising company to start the campaign which was slated for one year. The campaign ended in February 2007.
Angela Oguena, the 141 Worldwide's representative who handled the contract with MTS on the company's behalf, said the models were paid for the use of their images for a year. After MTS's contract with 141 Worldwide and the models expired 141 Worldwide wrote several letters to MTS to stop running the advertisements but it did not co-operate because a new helmsman had replaced the one 141 Worldwide transacted business with. The new managing director said he was not ready to discuss what his predecessor did. "I think that is callous," Oguena said.
Omo Bazuaye, public relations manager, MTS, admitted that his company is owing owes 141 Worldwide but noted that it is not strange in the industry to owe. "I can tell you 10 billboards in this country that their contracts have expired and are still standing… MTS First Wireless has obligations to 141 Worldwide and not to the models," he said, adding, that "only the advertising agency, 141 Worldwide, can pull down the billboards."
He said MTS has no direct dealings with the models because MTS has paid 141 Worldwide a total sum of N140 million and only owes it less than N25 million. To him, 141 Worldwide should have paid the models their due fees.
When reminded that 141 Worldwide has no legal capacity to do that since its contract with MTS expired last year and was not renewed, Bazuaye said MTS's official position on the issue remains that, "141 Worldwide should have come to tell us that the billboards should be pulled down. MTS cannot pull its own billboard down…MTS has no obligation towards the models. If MTS billboard is standing and no one comes to tell us that we should remove them, we will leave them there."
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