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Bradenton-Based Beall's Seeks Fresh Faces For Ads

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By TONI WHITT

Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Published: February 19, 2008

Bored with the same old look in its ads, Bradenton-based Beall's department stores put out the word that it is looking locally for fresh faces.

The company received an overwhelming response to the open casting call, with more than 600 teenagers and young adults within a 100-mile radius applying for a shot at being the centerpiece of ads featuring the Florida lifestyle.

For about 200 of the would-be stars, their 30-second shot at the spotlight was both an awkward and exciting experience. Awkward because few had any experience at posing for the camera -- and that is what they had to do, with little or no direction -- and exciting because it was a chance to be a real model.

Some think they have a shot at money and fame; others signed up on a whim.

Chris Hogan, 17, a senior at Manatee High School who has been accepted at the University of Florida, said he saw an item in the newspaper about the opportunity and thought, "Why not?"

"I have nothing to lose," Hogan said. "And it could be a fun part-time job."

A friend from his church turned a modeling job into a bit part in Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean."

Karen Filips, Beall's director of advertising production and promotions, said the company will evaluate the photo shoots during the next two weeks and then call anyone who is chosen.

Teenagers who look natural and relaxed -- most struggled at that -- could be featured in the company's back-to-school ads in the summer.

"It's something a lot of people would love to do," Filips said. "This is local, tangible and within their reach."

Though not necessarily relaxed, many fresh faces showed up, especially 14- and 15-year-old girls.

Kara Inglis, 14, an eighth-grader at King Middle School, signed up for the casting call with her sister, Lisa, a 15-year-old freshman at Manatee High.

The pair had a leg up on most of the others. They are members of a modeling club and had some experience moving in front of a camera.

Neither aspires to a full-time modeling career, but both said it would be fun for now and that the rumors about the money they could make were enticing.

Filips said the models will be paid "the standard hourly modeling rate," and that's all she would say.

The Inglis girls heard that the rate could be as much as $80 or $100 per hour. Some of that, their mother said, would go toward college.

For Ronald Mathis II, a 16-year-old Sarasota resident, the possibility of free clothes from Beall's was enough to get him out to the casting call.

Ronald W. Mathis brought his son and his 14-year-old daughter, Ashlan, who attends West Coast School for Human Development, a private school in Sarasota.

Ashlan Mathis usually just likes to take photos, but she decided to "come out and show off my beauty and hopefully get a call back."

After watching his son go through the shoot, the elder Mathis was offering modeling tips to Ashlan as she waited for her number to be called.

Most of the teenagers said the photo shoot was scary or awkward, but Alyssa Bermudez, a 14-year-old from New Tampa, said it was a lot of fun. She found the casting call while searching the Beall's Web site for clothes and persuaded her mom to let her sign up.

"When I started high school, I wanted to try something different," Bermudez said. "I got into acting and drama."

Bermudez says she is not ready to sign up for "America's Next Top Model."

"I want to be a vet and maybe do this on the side," she said.

If Serena Hicks of Sarasota even had a notion of going straight into modeling after high school, her mother, Alice Hicks, made sure she knew better.

"She'll have to model in her spare time," Alice Hicks said, meaning that for her 17-year-old, education comes first.

Alice Hicks said she wanted to make sure her daughter had an opportunity to try out and experience something new.

"This could be the start of something," she said.

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