'Award-winning' production company responds to backlash over asking caterer to sponsor free food

A chef who’s the culinary director of a startup in the food industry took to Facebook to enquire about a message he recently received — a request from a local production company for catering service. 

The proposed payment? Credits and also (potential) exposure on social media and on the show that’s being produced, due to air on Channel 5 next year. 

The veteran chef was puzzled over the request for collaboration, which was sent by an assistant producer from an “award-winning” production company. The collaboration, as it turned out, involves the caterer sponsoring food for the production crew during the course of filming from Nov 15 to Jan 31, 2021. 

“They want my company to provide 28 packet(s) of food twice a month from November to January for free!” he wrote on Facebook. 

“That’s 168 packet(s) total, costing $2,100. They ok or not?”

The message he received included an offer of appreciation instead of monetary compensation. This included providing credits to the chef’s company and the sharing of behind-the-scenes pictures of the show’s cast and crew consuming the food. 

If the catering company is lucky, there’s even an opportunity to “potentially feature the products incidentally” on camera as well as the cast posting about the food they’re eating on their Instagram accounts. 

The chef’s post yesterday (Oct 8) has since garnered hundreds of comments — mostly angry folks who strongly informed him that not much good will come out of the “collaboration”. Some pointed out how the proposal was carefully worded so as not to firmly promise any exposure. 

‘Standard practice everywhere’

When contacted by AsiaOne, production company Ochre Pictures confirmed that they were the ones who sent out the sponsorship request to the chef’s catering service. They believe that brand sponsorships are beneficial to all parties and that the brand’s businesses would increase after getting mentioned on social media. 

“We were a little taken-aback that we did not receive any response from the said company and to find the rejection this way,” said Pedro Tan, the managing director of Ochre Pictures. 

“Of course, we understand that there may be some who perceive the value in such sponsorships differently, but we are very grateful to the many who do support local productions and step up to sponsor. For those who do not, they can simply reject and we will perfectly understand.”

Tan clarified that such sponsorship requests are standard practice in the content production industry as long as it adheres to certain industry guidelines. He also noted that his company’s production budget is considered “very small” when compared to the budgets of other production companies overseas. 

“We want to keep as much of the budget (in order) to increase the standard of production for areas which goes on screen. So every cent counts,” he affirmed. 

Tan added that sponsorship of catered food would help the company defray some of the costs, but the main reason is to provide “actors and crew with a variety of food so they do not get sick of the same packet food”.

ilyas@asiaone.com