Fiction. Halloway & Vane Talent Partners is invented, as is every rule below.
HALLOWAY & VANE TALENT PARTNERS
Authenticity Standards, v9.3
Internal. Tier 2 clients and above. Not for onward distribution.
Supersedes v9.2. See Appendix C, Amendments Following the Bakery Matter.
1. General principles
1.1 The client is a person. This document exists to ensure the client continues to appear to be one.
1.2 Authenticity is a deliverable and is scheduled like any other deliverable.
1.3 Nothing in this document should be read as discouraging genuine feeling. Genuine feeling is permitted, subject to Section 6.
1.4 The word “authentic” may not appear in any client-facing output, in any language, at any time. Clients who use the word will be asked to remove it. Clients who use it twice will be asked to attend a call.
1.5 The client should be approximately eleven per cent less polished than the client’s actual circumstances. This figure is derived and is not open to negotiation.
1.6 Where this document conflicts with a brand contract, the brand contract prevails, and the Agency will manage the resulting inconsistency internally.
2. Approved spontaneity
2.1 Spontaneity is a scheduled asset and is allocated monthly.
2.2 Tier 2 clients are allocated four (4) spontaneous moments per calendar month. Tier 1 clients are allocated seven (7), of which two may be carried forward.
2.3 Approved spontaneity categories:
- Minor Domestic Failure. A dropped item, a burnt item, a small appliance behaving badly. Must be recoverable within the same post.
- Unflattering Food. Permitted at any hour. The food must be recognisable and cheap. Not to be used within 96 hours of a wellness placement.
- Public Transport. Strong performer. The client must not be seen to enjoy it, and must not be seen to suffer conspicuously.
- Weather Complaint. Unlimited, does not count against allocation, and may be deployed without notice.
- The Crying. Tier 1 only. Requires 72 hours’ notice, a nominated cause, and a scheduled follow-up within nine days. Under no circumstances is the follow-up to be described as an update.
2.4 Spontaneity must be logged in the shared calendar under the client’s initials and the category letter, e.g. “RM — B, 14:40”. Do not write the word “spontaneity” in the calendar.
2.5 Two clients represented by the Agency may not deploy the same category on the same day within the same city.
2.6 Unapproved spontaneity — including but not limited to an unprompted opinion, an unbriefed political statement, an unscheduled reconciliation, or a new haircut — must be reported to the client’s day contact within one (1) hour of occurrence.
2.7 Spontaneity performed on a Sunday reads as effort and is discounted at 50% against allocation.
3. The caption formula
3.1 Captions follow the standard sequence:
[lower-case opener] + [small admission] + [one specific unremarkable noun] + [turn toward the audience] + [no full stop]
3.2 Worked example, approved:
ok so this took three attempts and the second one went in the bin. anyway. the mug is my mum’s. what are we all doing today
3.3 Worked example, rejected:
Grateful to be sharing my journey with you all today. Blessed.
3.4 Rejected because: capitalised opener; no admission; no noun; “journey” (retired 2023); “grateful” (permitted twice per quarter, logged); full stops; “blessed” (permanently withdrawn following the Q3 review).
3.5 The specific unremarkable noun is the load-bearing element. Acceptable: a mug, a bin bag, a radiator, a train ticket, a specific brand of biscuit not currently under contract. Unacceptable: anything with a resale value over £60, anything that photographs as an aspiration, anything a stranger would need explained.
3.6 Ellipses are permitted once per fortnight.
3.7 Where a caption must contain a commercial disclosure, the disclosure is placed after the fourth line break, in the client’s ordinary voice, and never at the start.
4. Domestic settings
4.1 The client’s home, as shown, must be a home the audience believes they could reach in nine years.
4.2 Where the client’s actual home cannot be shown, the Agency maintains a panel of approved interiors. Booking is through Production, not through the client.
4.3 One item in every domestic frame must be visibly worn out. This item is the client’s responsibility and must be consistent across a quarter.
4.4 Under no circumstances is a cleaner to appear, be referred to, or be audible.
5. Approved adjacency
5.1 Friendship is a distribution channel and is rostered.
5.2 Clients are expected to appear alongside at least two other represented clients per month, from different verticals, at a minimum of six days’ separation.
5.3 Cross-tagging quotas are set quarterly and are visible to the client on request.
5.4 Genuine friendships outside the roster are permitted and are not the Agency’s responsibility to photograph.
6. Real events
6.1 Illness, bereavement, separation and legal matters are handled under the Continuity Window.
6.2 The Continuity Window is eleven days. During the Window, scheduled output continues without reference to the event, drawn from the reserve library. Clients are asked to maintain a minimum eight-week reserve at all times for this purpose.
6.3 At the close of the Window, the client may address the event once, at length, without commercial content on the same day.
6.4 The event may be referred to twice more in the following twelve months. The third reference is chargeable to the client’s own content plan.
7. Clause 41: unmanaged ordinariness
41.1 Unmanaged ordinariness occurs where a client is photographed, filmed, recorded or credibly observed conducting themselves in a manner indistinguishable from a member of the public, without prior scheduling. Indicative examples: queuing without complaint; wearing an item of outerwear more than four years old; being unremarkable in a supermarket at 15:40 on a Tuesday; eating a sandwich in a parked car without visible enjoyment; being recognised and then not being recognised, in the same minute, by the same person.
41.2 First instance. The Agency will reframe the material within 48 hours as grounded. No cost to the client.
41.3 Second instance within a rolling twelve months. The client is placed on Relatability Watch and issued a six-week content plan. Allocation under Section 2 is suspended for the duration, on the basis that supply already exceeds demand.
41.4 Third instance. The Agency reserves the right to declare the client Post-Aspirational and to transfer representation to the Nostalgia desk, where different standards apply and where Sections 2 and 3 are disapplied entirely.
41.5 A client who has been ordinary continuously for eighteen months without commercial consequence may, at the Agency’s sole discretion, be relaunched as real, at which point Sections 1 to 6 apply again in full and the count under 41.3 resets.
41.6 Nothing in this clause prevents a client from being ordinary in private, provided it is not subsequently mentioned.
