Disturbed by the public’s perception of models, the organisers of Models On The Island (MOTI), Twin Image Concept, have initiated a campaign tagged: ‘Models Are Not Prostitutes.”
Speaking recently at an event to unveil the winners of the just concluded MOTI, a 5-day camping experience, co-founder of Twin Image Concept, Joseph Etim expressed worry over the place of models in Nigeria.
“Twin Image Concept is running a campaign tagged ‘Models Are Not Prostitutes’ and over 5, 000 models will be involved. We want all the winners in our camping exercises to come together to push this particular project. Though modelling agencies make it look like the profession is meant for prostitutes, we want to enlighten our parents that there is dignity and reward in modelling. It is a profession one can earn a living from, but most agencies ask for s3x before they give out jobs. It is wrong to sell your body to get a job,” he narrated.
He explained that MOTI was a camping empowerment exercise for models to get trained in acting, television commercials, photography, modelling and other areas of entertainment.
“We had the first edition last year. This year we camped 80 models at the Takwa Bay Beach in Lagos and the grand finale was held on Easter Monday. We have our king, queen and the face of Ghana. This edition is open to contestants in and outside Nigeria.”
Emmanuel Etim, Joseph’s twin, stressed that they were determined to bring back the pride of models in Africa. “Models are treated badly, they are not respected in the industry like actors or musicians. All the commercials you see here and there are meant for models but since models don’t have that face they don’t get these jobs. We only get peanuts like ushering in parties or featuring in videos, which is very bad for the profession.
Our main concern now is to make models have a face so that they would not be looked down upon. In our camping exercises, we bring companies who can offer jobs and opportunities to models.”
MOTI’s new queen, Tracy Solomon, admitted that it was hard to emerge winner as she competed with 80 ladies. “We were given lots of tasks with little time. It was not easy. I am embarking on my pet project very soon as a way of giving back to the society. It would be on malaria because it kills people every day, especially children.
Vanguard