castingi

Earlier today, a casting call posting briefly appeared on Craigslist seeking actors for an iPhone 5 Commercial. The ad seemed to have been only up for a couple of hours, but long enough to get indexed by Google and screenshot'd by one of our readers.

The ad was looking for both Male and Female commercial actors. The role was described as "Happy, Smiling" and they were looking to cast 5 people in a range of ethnicities, ages and sexes. The payment was curiously listed in british pounds.

It's certainly strange that such an ad was posted in the first place, explicitly mentioning the "iPhone 5". It may have been a mistake or a hoax. Arguing against a pure hoax, however, is the fact that a very similar ad ran in New York about a month ago, but that time just for the "Apple iPhone" (not the iPhone 5):

Commercial Casting Notice for Apple iPhone:
Location: NY
Employer: TIGER PRODUCTIONS
Duration: 1 DAY, starts MAY 4TH.
(Non-Union artist contracts)
Director: H. GOLAN
ROLE: family oriented happy, male and female
AGE: 18-50 - huge range
RATE: $3000 +10%

Apple is known to film commercials ahead of product launches. In fact, last year at about this exact time (May 24th, 2010), Apple was casting commercials for FaceTime in their then-unreleased iPhone 4. That said, we were unable to find any further online information on casting director H. Golan or the production company listed.

Top Rated Comments

mobile-caffeine Avatar
179 months ago
What's also fishy...

The shoot is set for LA (I'm assuming Los Angeles, California) but the payment is in British Pounds. Hmmm....
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jmann Avatar
179 months ago
This most definitely fake. I work at an online casting software company where 98% of LA's commercials are cast through, and any legitimate casting director would NEVER post a job like this in a public place. The client would fire them in an instant.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
cooldaddybeck Avatar
179 months ago
Why is this even listed here?

Tomorrow on Macrumors:

Nigerian prince will trade $26 million dollars for an iPhone4, if you would please do the needful and please be open to providing your financial information and locate a Western Union near you.
:rolleyes:
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
FireFish Avatar
179 months ago
If you observe the ad closely, you'll realize that not only is it a fake, it was likely purported by someone connected with Anand Desai-Barochia (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3652548/).


:confused: Why? Because they conveniently provided two links as examples of who they're 'interested in'. Notice that both links are identical aside from the trailing '/' sign, which effectively does nothing as far as hyper-linking goes.

:rolleyes: Why did they post both variations of this guy's link? Clearly for search engine spider indexing purposes. They knew how much crap would be generated from this chatter and how many times his link would be mentioned all over the web that it would naturally make his IMDB traffic up there next to Harrison Ford. Believe it or not, casting companies using IMDB actually consider an actor's page traffic when searching. Meaning, if an actor's IMDB page has recorded more hits than others, they immediately assume that there's a reason this actor is getting so much 'attention' by other casting agents.

:cool: In a nutshell, while I don't have proof that my theory is correct, I'm willing to bet on it. The first thing I thought when reading the initial posting was why they'd need to say "we're looking for someone like him". If we're talking about an ad for a product that has over $1.5 billion dollars in revenue, you'd think that they could figure out a way to afford that guy instead of posting a casting call looking for his cheaper look-alike. :apple:
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
coder12 Avatar
179 months ago
I think that the fact that it's written in all caps, has a few !!!s thrown in there, and a ":)" sends this screaming to be a fake, but hey, maybe I'm mistaken here...
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jmann Avatar
179 months ago
So you're saying the April post was also fake? Serious question.

arn

I would say with almost 100% certainty it is. Many times the Casting Directors when hired by the client (Apple) are required to sign NDAs and are prohibited from listing product or company details when posting the breakdown online for the agents to submit their talent to for auditions.

Legitimate casting directors won't post on craigslist either. If they are looking for someone very particular and they don't get the right submissions from the agents, they can release a project publicly for actors themselves to submit. But that is very rare, and usually only seen when casting for something like an obese person that is a professional bird caller or something super-specific like that, but that is the only time that you will see publicly listed submissions for big time commercial roles.

But I can guarantee they won't be risking being fired by a client for posting a project on craigslist.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

iOS 18

iOS 18.4 Will Include These New Features for Your iPhone

Wednesday February 5, 2025 7:15 am PST by
iOS 18.3 was released last month, so the first iOS 18.4 beta should be coming soon. iOS 18.4 is expected to be a more substantial update for the iPhone, with several new features and changes related to Apple Intelligence and beyond. Apple's website suggests that iOS 18.4 will be released in April, following beta testing. Below, we outline what to expect from the update so far. Apple...
iCloud General Feature Redux

iPhone Users Who Pay for iCloud Storage Receive an All-New Perk

Thursday February 6, 2025 11:21 am PST by
If you pay for iCloud storage on your iPhone, Apple has a new perk for you, at no additional cost. iCloud+ is the official name for Apple's paid iCloud storage plans, which range from 50GB for $0.99 per month to 12TB for $59.99 per month in the United States. iCloud+ plans already come with multiple perks for free, such as Hide My Email and HomeKit Secure Video, and now there is another one...
maxresdefault

An Apple TV Refresh is Coming in 2025 - Here's What You Should Know

Wednesday February 5, 2025 10:17 am PST by
Apple hasn't refreshed the Apple TV since 2022, but rumors suggest that we're finally going to get an update in 2025. We don't have a full picture of what to expect yet, but we have some hints on what's coming. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Updated A-Series Chip The current Apple TV 4K uses the A15 Bionic chip that was in the iPhone 13 lineup, and it's time for...
iPhone SE 4 Single Camera Thumb

iPhone SE 4 Launching as Soon as Next Week

Thursday February 6, 2025 3:30 pm PST by
Apple's next-generation iPhone SE could debut as soon as next week with a launch to follow later in February, reports Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Apple isn't expected to hold an event for the iPhone SE 4, and will instead unveil the device through a press release. The iPhone SE 4 is expected to have an iPhone 14-style design, with Apple eliminating the thick bezels and Touch ID Home button of...
iOS 18

iOS 18.3.1 Update Coming Soon for iPhones

Thursday February 6, 2025 7:31 am PST by
Apple is internally testing iOS 18.3.1 for iPhones, according to our website's analytics logs, which have been a consistently reliable indicator of upcoming iOS versions. The software update should be released within the next few weeks. iOS 18.3.1 should be a minor update that addresses software bugs and/or security vulnerabilities. Apple Intelligence notification summaries for news and...
iCloud General Feature Redux

Apple Ordered by UK to Create Global iCloud Encryption Backdoor

Friday February 7, 2025 2:37 am PST by
The British government has secretly demanded that Apple give it blanket access to all encrypted user content uploaded to the cloud, reports The Washington Post. The undisclosed order is said to have been issued last month, and requires that Apple creates a back door that allows UK security officials unencumbered access to encrypted user data worldwide – an unprecedented demand not before...
disney

Disney+ Loses 700,000 Subscribers Following Price Increase

Wednesday February 5, 2025 3:34 pm PST by
Disney+ lost 700,000 subscribers worldwide in recent months, according to Disney's earnings results for the first quarter of 2025. Disney said it now has 124.6 million Disney+ subscribers, a decrease of 0.7 million compared to its subscriber numbers in the fourth quarter of 2024. The drop in subscribers comes after Disney+ prices increased in the fall. Disney+ with Ads went from $7.99 to...
Apple Leak Feature

Apple Leaker Issues Apology: 'Profound and Expensive Mistake'

Friday February 7, 2025 9:21 am PST by
Last year, we reported that Apple sued its former software engineer Andrew Aude for providing journalists with confidential information about the company's future plans, including details about the Journal app, Vision Pro headset, and more. As reported by 9to5Mac, the Superior Court of Santa Clara County on Thursday dismissed the lawsuit after Apple and Aude reached an agreement to resolve...