A casting call launched by Mondelez International brand Milka ahead of this year’s Christmas campaign has received backlash due to its specifications, which have been deemed "outrageous".
Casting for the role of Mia – a 9- to 11-year-old girl – the call said: "She must be beautiful and angelic, not over 11. No taller than 4ft 4in. She must be sweet and innocent. Still a little girl. Eye colour and hair colour are not important but no red hair."
The ad continued: "She is very special. She must not have reached puberty. Very pretty/beautiful. Sweet, warm, friendly," before specifying the young actress should have "very good skin and teeth".
An amendment to the ad also specified: "No overweight children as this is advertising chocolate."
The casting call was launched through Spotlight, a company that helps performers find roles, before being posted on Twitter.
Spotlight has since released a statement via social media apologising for the call, which it claimed "absolutely did not meet [the company’s] high standards".
"Breakdowns like this are, quite simply, totally unacceptable and we should never have allowed it to be published… We made a serious error and we should have done much, much better. We’re sorry."
A spokesperson for Mondelez International said: "We’d like to thank people for bringing this casting notice to our attention.
"We take our advertising responsibility very seriously and this is not representative of the brief we shared with the casting agency and does not meet our high standards.
"We would never approve the use of such a notice, and are urgently reviewing the situation with Spotlight UK to understand how and why it has happened."
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