Former Chicago Sun-Times advertising columnist Lewis Lazare continues to report on the local ad scene via Reel Chicago, and his latest exposé examines potential shenanigans involving the Illinois State Lottery.
Once again, Lazare is spotlighting alleged scandals while Illinois Auditor General William Holland wonders about the creation of the Northstar Lottery Group as the Lottery’s first private manager. Lazare observed, “Northstar is comprised of ad agency Energy BBDO/Chicago, Gtech and Scientific Games. All three were Lottery vendors when they banded together as Northstar at the last minute to compete with two other candidates for the lucrative private manager contract.” An Omnicom shop hastily fabricated a new enterprise to service a client and collect big bucks? Shocking.
At least this time Lazare is not focusing on minority agencies, although he is targeting the Lottery’s superintendent again. Back in 2005, Lazare questioned the acting superintendent’s competence. Now he’s only predicting the current official will lose her job. As for Holland, it appears he’s consistently suspicious of any vendor working for Illinois.
Someone should ask the folks at R.J. Dale to comment on the situation. After being criticized, probed and skewered by Lazare in 2005 over the handling of the Lottery account, the agency was ultimately cleared of any wrongdoing—however, Dale and his staffers are still waiting for Lazare to retract his false accusations.
In the end, finding corruption tied to the Illinois State Lottery is not surprising. Hey, the state routinely sends governors to prison for being sleazy crooks. But it will be interesting to see how a White advertising agency emerges from the scrutiny.
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