Ad ‘scam’ actually
a misunderstandingA solicitation for the UH by
a mainland firm was legitimate
New York sports marketing executive Martin Lewis said he was surprised when he saw an online news story about his company allegedly being involved in an advertising solicitation scam in Hawaii.
The story, which ran in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin on Oct. 25, reported that police said University Sports Publications was fraudulently using the name of the University of Hawaii basketball team to approach vendors and solicit advertising. The Honolulu Advertiser ran a similar story on Oct. 26.
The news stories were based on a Honolulu police CrimeStoppers alert that came after UH officials said the company had no affiliation with the university.
But Lewis' company, based in New York, does have a contract with the Advertiser to solicit advertising for UH for two years.
"This whole incident was deeply distressing to us because we have an impeccable record," said Lewis, who is the USP executive vice president for business development. "We were caught totally unaware that this was going on."
Officials for both UH and the Advertiser have since confirmed the contract exists.
The misunderstanding started when a vendor contacted the UH Athletic Department after receiving a letter from USP on Oct. 16 that was soliciting ad space for the 2003 University of Hawaii Basketball Program. The vendor questioned whether the letter was legitimate, and UH officials decided it was not.
UH contacted the Honolulu Police Department and filed a report. A CrimeStoppers press release went out Oct. 24 warning the business community about an "advertising scam."
"It just came down to miscommunication," said Carolyn Tanaka, of university relations. "Our former marketing people were verbally informed by the Advertiser about the arrangement (with USP). Apparently, that information did not get passed down to our current marketing people."
The Advertiser was awarded the UH contract in July 2001 and handles the advertising for basketball, volleyball, baseball and softball programs and other publications. According to Mike Fisch, the Advertiser's publisher and president, the contract with USP was signed a few months later.
CrimeStoppers Detective Letha DeCaires said she plans to issue another news release stating that the solicitation letter was not a scam.
"We're happy that people stepped forward to clear this up," Lewis said.
