Gap, Inc. announced yesterday the four winners of this year’s Casting Call Contest for babyGap and GapKids Stores Nationwide. Long Beach’s Madison Russell, 9, was one of the four. The national contest called for one boy and girl in the babyGap category (4 and under) and one boy and girl for GapKids (5 to 10). Madison was the winner for the girls 5-10 group and will be featured in store windows nationwide.
From Sept. 22 to Oct. 22, parents across the country uploaded photos of their babies and kids at gap.com/castingcall. Judges then narrowed down the pool of nearly one million entrants to 20 finalists - 10 babies and 10 kids. The finalists were announced in early December and it was up to America to cast their vote for their favorite babies and kids at gap.com/castingcall. See the related www.OC180NEWS.com article below.
Madison’s mom, Debra Russell, told www.OC180NEWS.com “Madison and the whole family/friends are super excited for her. When Madison sees herself in pictures like this or on TV she laughs, giggles, does cartwheels and then moves on to the next best thing...her teacup yorkie, her friends, her dance classes and homework. She is just a sweet and grounded little girl. We have been really excited about this gap contest because it was such a big deal to be chosen out of so many darling kids. As a finalist she was up against 4 other really cute girls. All of them would have been great representatives for Gap. My husband and I knew that the voting could go any which way so we prepared Madison as best we could. We told her that being selected as a finalist was truly the winning part of this contest because there were so many kids that applied.”
Gap, Inc. said in a statement yesterday “America has voted - the results are in. Today, Gap revealed the four adorable, charismatic winners of its fourth annual Casting Call contest. Out of nearly one million entries, the next faces of babyGap and GapKids are William McLaughlin, 11 months, from Medford, MA; Shyenne Walker, 2, from Pembroke Pines, FL; Sammy Isselhardt, 5, from Saratoga, CA; and Madison Russell, 9, from Long Beach, CA. In addition to receiving incredible prizes from Gap and Disney Family.com, the winners will light up babyGap and GapKids store windows coast-to-coast starting today in a campaign featuring Gap's iconic arch logo hoodie in bright springtime hues.”
"Thanks to the enthusiasm of the parents across the country, this year's contest was our biggest and most successful to date," said Pam Wallack, president of babyGap, GapKids and GapMaternity. "Our annual Casting Call contest is always one of our favorite events of the year and on behalf of the entire Gap family, I would like to congratulate William, Shyenne, Sammy and Madison for becoming the newest faces of babyGap and GapKids.”
"Disney Family.com was thrilled to host this year's Casting Call for the Gap. It was deeply satisfying to enable parents to share their beautiful children with us and to help them activate their social networks for fan voting. The viral activity generated by this was stunning," stated Emily Smith, vice president, Disney Online Mom and Family Portfolio.
Madison’s mom Debra added “Another really neat thing for her about this contest was the fact that so many friends and family members rallied for her. Her school in Long Beach (Prisk Elementary) really supported her and voted...that makes her feel really good.”
The four winners of this year's Casting Call will be featured in the windows of babyGap and GapKids stores from coast-to-coast and receive other prizes from Gap and Disney Family.com including a $1,000 Gap gift card and a Disney on Broadway package in New York or Las Vegas for a two-night VIP Lion King experience.
Debra Russell said “Madison's goals now are to Dance, Act, Model and Rescue Animals. When she is asked what she would like to do with winning this contest...She says ‘I really want to dance on a Miley Cyrus video, work with Miley Cyrus and be a guest star on Wizards of Waverly Place’.”
