Ad agency CEO reacts angrily to “actor” claims over Livingstone PEB

After claims emerged that Ken Livingstone’s Party Election Broadcast featured “actors”, Matthew Charlton, the CEO of BETC London (the agency that produced the PEB) has reacted angrily – releasing the following statement:

“For anybody to claim that the people featured in the Ken Livingstone broadcast  are not valid voices in the debate is nothing short of a disgrace. The reason the film works is because it actually represents real truth. These are not actors but peoples’ mums and dads, brothers and sisters. People who never have a voice but on Wednesday night for 3 minutes did. Those who aim to diminish this through  picking apart  the process of making it are,  I am afraid,  trying to diminish the voice of the ordinary people.”

“When Patricia, the old lady in the film, thanks Ken for the free bus pass, she does it because she really means it. It’s just simple truth.  Does anyone really think that she is not speaking from the heart or that she doesn’t deserve to be heard for once in her life on prime time on the BBC?? I for one find her more compelling and emotional viewing than anything else I have seen throughout the election and am not prepared to  sit back back and allow  her voice to be diminished or devalued.”