BARBIZON: Readers Dispute Dateline Expose
April 14, 2009 by Sean Kelly
Filed under Business
Yesterday’s post (BARBIZON: Dateline NBC’s Scathing Expose) about the Dateline NBC undercover expose 
on the franchised Barbizon Modeling & Acting Centers provoked some strong reactions from FranchisePick.com readers.
One woman claims that footage of her daughter was shown on the Dateline NBC spot without her or her daughter’s permission. She claims that Barbizon and IMTA are making her daughter’s dreams of being a model come true. Fran Private writes:
Our daughter was shown several times on a Dateline episode on Sunday, 4-12-09, which featured a negative story against Barbizon and the IMTA convention. Contrary to the story line of disappointment and scams, our daughter was discovered through a local Barbizon and did very well at IMTA (last IMTA attended in July 2008). Barbizon of Ardmore, Pennsylvania is the modeling school where she attended her classes.
Since attending IMTA, she has been signed in 4 countries. Has been modeling full time, signed in New York with a top 10 modeling agency, and has traveled to and modeled in Tokyo (4 separate trips to Tokyo), Paris, and currently in Singapore. She has done work for international and national magazines, advertising and has been on famous designer runways. All of this, by the age of 16.
Barbizon of Ardmore, Pennsylvania, has always treated our daughter and managed her career with the utmost level of professionalism that has always gone above and beyond expectations…Our daughter would not be doing what she is doing today if it not for Barbizon of Ardmore and IMTA! She had a terrific time attending IMTA… It was at IMTA that Elite saw her and signed her along with many other top ten agencies that are still currently interested.
I have to keep our name anonymous for many reasons but can assure that our decision to use Barbizon and attend IMTA was very positive. There truly are success stories that exist, as we are one of those stories. It is very sad that our daughter had to be shown on national television in such a negative story, as we 100% disagree with the broadcasted show. While perhaps it is a fact there is a small percentage that will get signed or work as models, it can and does happen, we are proof that it really can!
Another FranchisePick.com reader claims that the Dateline NBC expose was deliberately run in order to damage Barbizon and advance a competitive school’s program. Conspiract theorist Vee writes:
open your eyes…this was a slander againt Barbizon (founded in 1939) a 70 year old company that belives in young women…The director (Neal Hamil) of Elite agency never mentioned that Elite agency was founded by John Casablanca who also founded John Casablanca modeling and acting centers this school patterend their business plan after Barbizon in 1979. Barbizon is John Cassablanca’s biggest competitor. Barbizon is up 70% in a bad economy not only in enrollment , but with success storys of many models and actors that have graduated from barbizon. This was delibrately aired to hurt Barbizon for the benifit of another training center. Dateline did not reserch this story or maybe they were paid to do this because Neal Hamil is also involved with NBC reality TV! Not one other traing center was mentioned and their are many accros the country that charge money for training. A matter of fact look up Neal Hamil he also owned a traing center himself that he chared aspiring models to attend.
FranchisePick.com reader becky claims that the story of the father who dropped $30K to make his cute but chubby little daughters supermodels omitted a significant fact: that the daughters were not admitted to the modeling program, just the acting program. becky writes:
THis story also focused on high fashion models. they guy with the 2 girls neglected to mention that they did not go for modeling only acting and did not participate in any modeling competitions at imta!! Obviously those girls are not high fashion material and were directed by Barbizon to compete in acting. Barbizon has a foundation with confidence building and professional skills as well as modeling and acting. All barbizons are independently owned and operated. With any franchise you get the good and the bad. this show was misleading and no regard for the truth. shame on you chris hansen!!! go back to catching real predators.
There’s always a highly sensitive and articulate intellectual in the crowd to add the sophisticated analysis. Writes anonymuz:
its the parents fault, the truth is if your kids are ugly, deal with it
IS BARBIZON MAKING DREAMS COME TRUE… OR IS IT A SCAM? WHAT DO YOU THINK?
logo: Barbizon
ok
Barbizon school is a load of crock!
They charge you a lot of money to attend their school and then they charge your family extra money to watch you do some fake runway shit!
I attended the Barbizon school in San Francisco and NOTHING happened. They teach you how to sit, eat, walk and basic make-up tips. Run away from Barbizon. Run as fast as you can!
Barbizon of Philly and IMTA launched my career. My thanks to those establishments and to the people who run them!!
My daughter was elected to participate for Barbizone Modeling School in Arizona and agreed to get a contract for two years. She will start school and hope that this is no scam, if so like a parent being supportive to my daughter dreams in modeling and her dreams come true, As a parent I will take the necessary steps to take it thrue the legal system.
We all need to remember to always support our kids, and if we are scam!! due something about it our kids will also see that,and will be more alert in the decisions they make.
I was a part time Barbizon Recruiter in California while I attended Cosmetology school. I loved my job. It is a great program for people of all ages. If you wanted to be a model and took the time to go to auditions, then yes, the program worked for you. You could take it as far as you wanted to go. I saw girls come in looking like boys and when they left they were Young Ladies. It is not a scam. Some people are just not model material or not what agencies are looking for at that time. Barbizon makes dreams come true.
Well, I am 17 years old. One day I was walking in the mall and 2 girls approached me asking me if I wanted to sign up for a free photoshoot. In my opinionm, this is how they recruit most girls. On the bottom of the slip u fill out, it asks u to check if you are interested in modeling, acting, or self improvement. I thought this was cool, because a free photoshoot probably sounds good to most teens. Then one day Barbizon came to my school, asking people to fill out a form for a scholarship, again at the bottom of the slip it said to check which 3 categories u were interested in. A couple weeks later, I got a call from barbizon saying somethin like, “You’re daughter has been chosen to come in for a free interview for Barbizon Modeling and Acting agency”. Of course I was excited, I showed up and they said I was everything they were looking for. I think they make you feel good about yourself on purpose, so you will go through with the program. To take classes, it cost a lot of money, of course I was begging my parents to go through with it.
During the class, I’ve made many new friends and we still keep in touch. I think that if you want to make friends and communicate with people your age, this is the program for you, but you can also do that at many different camps and such. The classes are a great experience and fun because you get to interact with different girls and maybe overcome some shyness. My class was a very supportive group, and if you, or your daughter do take this class, you should walk in knowing that no one knows eachother and be very supportive of every person. I think that it is a great accomplishment someone thats very shy to step out of there box.
The day of my barbizon graduation, I was lined up with girls about my height, and that all realized this was a scam. You pay so much money for this ‘Graduation’ that isn’t that great, They tell you there are going to be agencys there, but when the students asked someone how many, they said, “For sure 2 agents BUT! there miGHt be more coming”. That didn’t sound too reassuring for us older girls.
It was my fault for not making graduation fun, and I wish that I had.
If you get a call from barbizon saying that you have been chosen for a promotional modeling job, you are basically going to somethin big, like a mall, approaching girls and asking them if they are interested in signing up for a free photoshoot. You get paid 8 dollars an hour. Even if you don’t believe in this job, and you go to it, make sure to be outgoing because some people do get discovered from barbizon.
I also got a call for an audition, saying that they were giving away money n prizes. You go to the audition to be able to compete in the barbizon competition, they told me i was picked over about 250 girls, and after they said that, I was thinking there are that many girls in the classes around the area and many of them didn’t even show up to the auditions.
The competition is over a weekennd and I am dedicated to school as much as I am to this THInG that I got my parents to pay for. So I am striving to do my best just because I could’ve used that money for plenty of other things. I cannot attend there workshop because I have school stuff to do, so I feel like I am missing some opportunity. Therefore, I am trying to think of everything I can do to standout in this compeitition, which I think will be something like graduation, but with your monologues, BECAUSe there are videos on youtube.
Ehhh, I have both positive and negative thoughts about barbizon. But the truth is not everyone is made for this industry. “I” don’t even know if I am good for this industry. If you TRUELY BELIEVE you can make it, then go for it and if you don’t, it’s your decision. BUT FIRST! consider things like, on the ford models site, you can send in pictures and information, ORRR a lot of times models and such are discovered from open interviews at agencies.
I’m not trying to say you should or shouldn’t attend Barbizon, but after I made my submission, I started to research Barbizon and a lot of “SCAM” comments from people were put in. THIS is because they choose many people to attend there school, but in reality not THAT many people make it into this industry, and they choose LoTs of people. THaT is the reason why there is so much hate towards barbizon over the web. And again, if you truely think you have what it takes, consider submitting your pictures online to those agencies like FORD MODELS and go to open interviews. I wish I would’ve considered those first.
When the name “BARBIZON” is never mentioned in connection with the attendance at the annual IPAC Conference in LA, I would say, ‘yes’ it is a scam.
I was looking for part-timee work in Voiceover when they called me for an audition; it sounded legit. At age 66, I should know better than to trust a 3-hr Audition with a hard-sale to get a down payment for just attending a 3 day Conference (and workshop?). They wore me down with the long audition, lots of promises to be showcased to agents attending, etc. I even said I ‘was not’ interested in modeling at all (being only 5′1″). When I tried to reach someone to cancel, they weren’t available. I called my bank to dispute the charges and close the account. By now, I was genuinely ill and couldn’t attend. The bank refunded my money. For a short time. The battle lines were drawn, and I was told by the bank they couldn’t get involved in legal issues. Meanwhile, they chgd my account back with promises to invesitigate it. I filed complaints with the FTC, BBB, State Attys Ofc and Consumer Protection Agency as well as local attys. It’s on record should a class-action come out of it. The bank called and suggested I get names of others to file a class action suit, after again charging it back the second time to my ‘closed’ account. I wish I’d called DATELINE NBC and been a part of their expose’ in Feb 2009. It would’ve had a different slant. Anyone care to join me for that class-action suit? First, file with the FTC and other agencies mentioned above in your state. IPAC (under Barbizon in San Francisco) makes promises to young people who are trying to follow their dreams and exploit them emotionally … thru parents who want to see their children make something of their future. It would be much better if they went to a local college and got courses needed with the money before venturing out into other venues. At least, much safer and without great financial losses!