Video company is merely a telemarketing company

Despite the clanging of alarm bells from this paper and despite all the online Ripoff Reports, Red Oak City officials have elected to turn a deaf ear and hire a telemarketer out of Florida and pay them almost $25,000 to produce a controversial promotional video. This boggles my mind. After operating under several other names and being sued several times, that company of dubious distinction is now U.S. Media.

Is this company really a telemarketer? Yes. There is a Florida law which states telemarketing companies must be licensed with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. U.S. Media is indeed a licensed telemarketer, confirmed by a phone call to that department.

U.S. Media makes a great use of social media to generate their own accolades, which they use as a marketing strategy. Most of their favorable publicity comes from PRWEB, an online press release company. Write your own press release, pay your money, get the publicity of your choice and as much as you want for a price. Use it to impress the clients.

Then there are the Telly Awards, also designed to impress the unsuspecting. U.S. Media claims to have won eight last year. So did thousands of others.  Entries are self-nominated. Pay a fee, get an award. Pay to play. For another good chunk of money, they can order a statuette to put in their trophy case. Looking at the whole picture, this company seems entirely too deceptive for comfort.

So if Red Oak deals with a shady company, will that made “Red Oak, Just a Shade Better?” Pick up the trash and dust off Broadway, company’s coming. We’ll know soon. Apparently it’s a done deal. Taxpayers can just grin and bear it and fork over the funds.

Carolyn Gildseth is a Red Oak resident