If you are involved in the marketing or advertising department of any one of South Africa’s retail chains, be warned that some model agencies do not want your business. In fact, one agency in particular believes that working with you may well make them a “laughing stock.”

For the last five and a half years, 2oceansvibe has published a weekly feature called Tuesday Tabs. The feature showcases a famous model every week in a mildly risqué fashion shoot that they have been in – usually from the likes of Vogue magazine.Previous featured models have included Candice Swanepoel, Adriana Lima and Kate Moss.

The shoot can only be seen by clicking through from the front page to the article, and it is left up to the reader to decide if they want to see it. A short blurb is given for each model, sometimes including a link to their model agency.

This week we featured a relatively unknown local model, Maritza Veer – using some pics we found of her shoot with international high-end fashion mag ‘Schon.’ The same pics are featured on a number of other websites. A search for “maritza veer schon” in Google produces 534,000 results. In the opening excerpt, we mentioned that she had previously done work with Truworths, and because she is South African, we also thought it would be cool to give a link to her agency, Fusion Models – just to send out some cool vibes.

Boy, was that a bad idea! Click ‘Continue Reading’ to witness an email exchange with Fusion Models director, Fiona Craig, that will blow your mind!

Below is the email exchange, from first email to last:

Name Fiona Craig

Email fiona@fusionmodels.co.za

Subject Maritza Veer/2oceans vibe

Message

Hi Seth,we saw your blog about Maritza Veer today.I have to say i would have appreciated a call to give you some up to date info about her and her extremely successful career rather than just say she’s worked for Truworths.I mean who cares,so has any old model in SA.What about mentioning Elle,Cosmopolitan,Australian Marie Claire,Italian Amica or any of the top campaigns she’s involved in????? very disappointing seeing as you are supposed to be Mr Blogger.
Fiona Craig
Director Fusion Models

Wow! No ‘thank you’ at all. Just ‘very’ disappointed and five question marks?????

Nonetheless, I made the changes she had mentioned, and wrote back. 

From: Seth Rotherham – 2oceansvibe.com [mailto:editor@2oceansvibe.com]
Sent: 25 04 12 11:21
To: fiona@fusionmodels.co.za
Cc: Richard Hardiman; Simon Hartley; Bruce Good
Subject: Re: Maritza Veer/2oceans vibe
Importance: High

Dear Fiona,

What an incredibly ungrateful email. We linked to your website, unsolicited, and all you have to say is that you’re disappointed? Tuesday Tabs is done on the spur of the moment every week and not something we go into great research over. the traffic it receives is massive.

All you had to do was email us and say that we might want to add Maritza’s extra accolades to the article – which I have now done – even though your approach and professionalism leaves a lot to be desired. Not even a thank you?

I am stunned by your brash, rude and naive approach to business and relationships.

Seth Rotherham
2oceansvibe Media

Maybe now there might be even the smallest glimmer of appreciation?

On 25 Apr 2012, at 11:40 AM, “Fiona”wrote:

Dear Seth

You may feel I am brash,rude and naïve,however my successful 25 years in this business obviously says otherwise.Might I say that wether Tuesday Tabs is done spur of the moment or not,in our industry it is absolutely vital the info regarding model careers is correct.Especially seeing as how successful she is becoming and as the majority of the images you have chosen to showcase are nudes,it is even more vital.Additionally in view of the fact you are telling me the traffic to this site is massive.

And BTW where did you get all the nudes? We do not have them on our site,and do not distribute them for blog purposes.
If you’d like to remove the link to our webste,please feel free,we deal directly with our clients both here and overseas,they do not source models for their specific projects via blogs.

Thank you.
Fiona

Wow, 25 years behaving like this? Imagine how successful she could have been?

She seems to have missed the point. I thought I should clarify.

From: Seth Rotherham – 2oceansvibe [mailto:editor@2oceansvibe.com]
Sent: 25 04 12 12:06
To: Fiona
Cc: Bruce Good; Simon Hartley; Richard Hardiman
Subject: Re: Maritza Veer/2oceans vibe

Thank you for clarifying. Although all I was talking about was your approach. Again, a polite “could you possibly add XYZ” is all it required. I’m not in your industry – I’m in the business of giving others exposure.

As I said before, the use of common courtesy and having the foresight to not burn bridges is the way we like to do business around here.

I’m sorry you do not feel the same way – something you have made abundantly clear. We will respect your wishes and refrain from ever promoting Fusion Models in a favorable light again.

All the best.

Seth

She wasn’t quite finished. when you’re on a roll, you’re on a roll, right?

From: “Fiona”
Subject: RE: Maritza Veer/2oceans vibe
Date: 25 April 2012 12:28:36 PM SAST
To: “‘Seth Rotherham – 2oceansvibe'”

Seth with all due respect saying Maritza has worked for local clients like Truworths is hardly portraying Fusion in a favourable light,it makes my business a laughing stock to any other industry related reader.

And if you are in the business of giving other people exposure then surely you have an obligation to ensure the info is correct and up to date? My mail was also not as rude as you seem to think it is,I am sure you would have felt the same way if you as a professional were portrayed in any way less than the respect you deserve for your achievements in your field.

Thanx
Fiona

Not very nice at all, I thought. How very unpleasant!

There are two sides to every story and you can see them very clearly above. That said, I have nothing more to say on the matter at this juncture. I’d be interested to know what YOU think?

Do YOU think this a cool way to do business?

Not that any of this should matter to Fusion Models. Judging by the aforementioned emails and the fact that “none of their clients read blogs.”

By the way, if you ARE looking for a modeling agency to work with and an agency who wants to work with you  (I’m talking to the likes of Truworths, Woolworths, Edgars, Foschini etc.), we strongly endorse Full Circle Models, part-owned by 2oceansviber, Janez Vermeiren.

Sharne van der Westhuizen
Full Circle Models

They’re a dream to work with and have some of the biggest names in the industry on their books, including the likes of Lieschen Botes, Marike Wessels and Sharne van der Westhuizen.

[photo:loopphoto.co.za]

Please bear in mind that comments are moderated, and can take up to an hour to process.