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A couple of years ago my dd was booked for back up for a tvc but told she would be used as background with a bunch of other kids, we got there and there was no background role she was there purely as back up, found out today my ds has not got the featured role in a tvc and has been asked to be back up, again with a mention of a background role, is this a ploy that production companies use to get kids to be back up?

Yes they do some times they don't even tell you that they are back up and it's only when your child is not taken down to film do you relise that they are back up. When both dc where younger if we where told they had a TVC I would get agent to ask if it was back up if so would only do it if they could stay at home and be back up if not would not do it, most times it just boring, luckily most times for dc they where the main kids felt so sorry for the kids who thought that they where and just sat about doing nothing or saying to there parent when is it my turn. There was one time when we had been told ds had been picked and relised that it was the other boy they wanted, they had to look at a piece of paper then keep looking and talking and then looking up the boy they wanted could not do it but they kept on getting ds to go in and do it and make other boy watch, he could not do it so in the end had to use ds there where 3 boys they tried with other boy but he had such a strong Welsh accent no one could understand him.

Interesting theory sophiesocks. We've just been offered the same : a back- up role with a promise of being used as an extra. Will let you know what happens, but our agent is confident it's genuine not an artificial sweetener. That would be a pretty mean trick to play as you can't then position the event with your DC properly.

I posted a thread last week asking about the role of back-up child and got a whole range of responses varying from - sat around doing nothing, stayed home "on call", was used as an extra, struck lucky and got used as "featured", to where someone's DC didn't know they were back up (very upsetting for the kid I would imagine).

We will take a game and a book. And some sweets for bribery!

Hi lollipop have told ds he will probably do nothing but he's pretty cool and is just planning how he wants to spend his money. He figures he's being paid to miss school so what's not to like but I hope it isn't too dull or depressing.

It was my DS that struck lucky and ended up as the featured child, but last week we had the opposite! We were told he was confirmed for a VoiceOver job, yet when we got there another child was in the studio. My DS then did his recording so I assumed they were using both.
It was a surprise to our agent too, as they were then told to invoice for the daily rate and would be contacted if DS was used in the final edit, to then invoice for the buyout. The contract read as if he was definitely going to be in the advert.
I just wish all information was given out at the start.

A couple of times my dd has been told there will be another child there and they didn't know which child will be used but she's been lucky and featured each time, but I remember once the other child sobbed her heart out and the mother was furious I think she'd been told her dd was featured it can be hard on children

I don't think my DS would have minded being paid for doing nothing at 8 9. 10 years old
At GCSE age it's not the money for him, it's losing school for no good reason and the frustration of doing nothing. It was less complicated when he was younger.
We don't bother with TVC's now as it's too much about looks and match up , and not something DS is up for or interested in now. Even if he was cut , he still felt he was doing something he loved.
Every child is different.