Schools Don't Profit from Poster Ads, But Business Is Legitimate

A local lawyer has raised concerns about a sales pitch he thought implied a fundraising partnership with Brookfield's high schools that turned out not to be.

But the Colorado company selling advertising space on high school football posters to Brookfield area businesses is apparently on the up-and-up, legally, although no money goes to the schools, the company acknowledges.

High School Posters Inc., based in Denver, promises only that posters displaying Brookfield Central and East high school football schedules and local business ads will be delivered to community members willing to put them up, a company representative said. It has no contracts with the individual schools or with Elmbrook School District and is not a school fundraising program.

Brookfield attorney Frank Pasternak, of Pasternak & Zirgibel, S.C., told Patch that when he received a sales call from High School Posters, he initially felt there was an implication that it would benefit the schools financially.

He was asked if he would be willing to spend $90 on a business card-size ad that would appear on a poster with the team schedules. 

"They present it in a way that they sound like they are supporting the schools," Pasternak said. "I don't have a transcript, so this isn't a direct quote, but the caller said something to the effect, 'We're selling advertising for Brookfield Central and Brookfield East, we make these posters and we put them up around the area.'

"My skepticism was raised, as a lawyer and a Central booster, that I hadn't heard of this program, so I asked, 'Do you have a contract?'

"The caller said, 'Well, we have a contract to publish the posters.' To a lawyer, that's sort of a non-response."

But Pasternak said that when he asked to speak to a supervisor, he was put through and received a full disclosure that, no, the company had no relationships or contracts with any schools or districts and that no money would go to the schools.

"They say, 'We help by giving them publicity,'" Pasternak said. "So, I guess I don't feel that what they're doing here is criminal in any way — I do think they are taking money away from the schools.

"That $90 could go a long way toward helping the schools directly, and I'd hate to see businesses paticipating here because they thought they were helping a fundraising effort, and then not giving to something that would directly benefit the schools."

Company promises only posters, manager says

High School Posters' operations manager, Dominick Ross, told Patch that complaints like Pasternak's were rare, and that most people who share his feelings simply choose not to participate as advertisers.

"We don't claim to be part of any school," Ross said. "We don't use any school colors or logos. We take the publicly released team schedules and we sell advertising space.

"As far as benefiting the schools, no, we don't give them any money. The benefit, even if it's a small benefit, is in helping them get those schedules out there."

Ross pointed out that not only is High School Posters a registered business in Colorado, it's been a member of the Better Business Bureau for seven years and has an A+ rating, with a very small number of complaints all fully and satisfactorily resolved.

Ross said the company's sales pitch does not disclose immediately that there is no fundraising benefit, but certainly doesn't suggest that there is — and furthermore, that callers are trained to say there isn't when asked.

"We don't say, first thing, 'This isn't going to benefit your schools monetarily,'" Ross said. "But that's the first thing anybody asks. And when they do, we say, 'No,' period.

"If they ask to be taken off our list, we do so, immediately, and if they do agree to participate but then change their minds, we refund their money."

Ross said that the poster distribution process follows the same pattern. Businesses, whether they buy ad space or not, are asked if they would be willing to receive and display the posters. Then we mail them the posters.

"Some say no, some say, yes, they'll take one, some say, 'Yeah, send me hundreds, I'll put them up,'" Ross said. "Do we know where they're put up, necessarily? No. We guarantee that 500 of these posters are going out to these communities."

So, it comes down to any business' judgment not only on how much benefit the schools get from publicizing the football games but also how much benefit the business itself might get from the advertising.