Bye bye giant ad, hello un-renovated building
posted by king on December 5th, 2008A towering billboard has finally been removed from The Main historic site, causing a collective sigh of relief from local residents who had been subjected to its gigantic advertisements since March, 2008. The 2-storey-high billboard was wrapped around a building on the South-East corner of St. Laurent and Sherbrooke, and for seven months citizens have complained about visual pollution in the form of giant shampoo bottles, Titan-sized models wearing preppy clothing, car ads, etc. The monstrosity that devalued the historic site (and neighbourhood) was provided courtesy of Time2Ad, a self-proclaimed “media provider company” with a sketchy reputation. Amazingly, Time2Ad’s President Matthew Alzubi refused to even call the visual pollution a billboard, claiming “It’s really art, integrated with advertising.”
the giant scaffolding wrap billboard on St-Laurent and Sherbrooke as it appeared this past summer
The rationale behind the enormous advertisement was that a decrepit-looking building would be renovated, and revenues from the wrap-around billboard would be used to help pay for the work. Among other renovations, the original permit issued by the City of Montreal called for the replacement of parts of the wall that were damaged, and the removal of unsightly paint on the bricks.
a permit for the monstrosity
The first incarnation of the billboard, in March, even depicted the restored brickwork – outside the boundaries of its gigantic advertisement.
the first incarnation of the scaffolding wrap billboard on St-Laurent and Sherbrooke
In August, Montreal Mirror’s Patrick Lejtenyi reported that the billboard was “scheduled to stay up until work on the building is completed in November.” Today, after 7 months of visual pollution, the November deadline for completion of the renovations has passed. While the Billboard is finally gone, it appears that little work has been done on the building, and the bricks still remain covered in flaking white paint.
unrenovated building on St-Laurent and Sherbrooke aftet the giant billboard was removed
Given that the renovation permit expires in a few weeks (December 23, 2008), one begins to wonder if the promised renovations are actually going to take place, or if this entire project has been a scam designed to pad the pockets of Time2Ad executives, at the expense of local citizens and those hoping to enjoy The Main historic site. Ville-Marie borough spokesperson Jacques-Alain Lavallée is quoted in the Lejtenyi article as saying the visual pollution is “perfectly legal” due to “a new bylaw permitting large-scale advertising on scaffolding that was passed this summer.” He also insisted that the billboard would come down once renovations were finished. Well, surprise, surprise! The renovations are not done, and time is running out. Why have we had to endure 7 months of visual pollution / corporate spam, if no renovations took place? Who allowed our historic site to be transformed into a massive advertising platform, and are these sorts of abuse to continue indefinitely? We must demand accountability from municipal officials in the Ville-Marie borough, who are clearly at fault for subjecting us to this scam. By legally permitting the degradation of The Main historic site and failing to follow up on the promised renovations, the municipal government has clearly demonstrated its failure to protect citizen interests, heritage, and tourism. It appears that more pressure is needed to convince municipal officials that the protection of our mental environment, especially in a historic site, should be tantamount. Therein lies the reason why we must continue in our attempts to Reclaim the Main!
Please visit the Reclaim The Main campaign online or join us on Facebook to help us plan our next step or for suggestions on how you can let your voice be heard.
February 23rd, 2009 at 4:49 pm
The whole thing was actually a scam. time2ad, managed by Matthew Alzubi and Justin Kausel, obviously never intended to renovate the building. The idea was a good one, renovate and cover the construction site, then show the finished product. However not renovating and cashing the checks of the advertising companies is fraudulent. For our information there were false promises to the landlord, who did not get paid, and all the companies involved in the site work. None got paid, from the landlord, laborers on site, the construction company and the designers and printers.
It was a scam to fill the pockets of time2ad’s management.
March 18th, 2009 at 9:58 pm
Scam Scam Scam.
The whole thing was one big illegal money grab and the sad thing is that Matthew Alzubi and Justin Kausel are still not in jail for all their illegal activities.
April 30th, 2009 at 10:51 pm
Matthew Alzubi and Justin Kausel are 2 complete scammers. Matthew is great at conning people under the guise of shmoozing people and success, along with his common sayings like “habibi, my friend, it’s all good, everything is great habibi, we’re all going to make a lot of money!.”
The truth is that they never had any intention of fixing that building. I know this for a fact and heard it from the horse’s mouth. They are running a scam where they are allowed to put a scrim with advertising on it as long as masonry work is being done. The scam is that they take the $30,000-$50,000 they make per month of advertising and pocket it. Once they run out of advertisers, they take down the scrim and take off, looking for the next building to place ads on.
Do not believe a word Matthew Al-zubi says. He owns Time2Ad and his company is running a new scam with a company called Adrail. Something along the lines of one company buying from the other and then declaring a loss on the books but getting advertising money under the table.
He also owes his sales reps lots of money. He convinced them to spend tons of time cold calling companies to get advertisers with promises of big money, then stiffed them when advertisers came through. He owes thousands upon thousands of dollars to many contractors, vendors, landlords, and so on. He rationalizes everything away so he can sleep at night. I wouldn’t trust him if I were you.
June 30th, 2009 at 6:01 pm
what’s so defamatory about this post? Dude can’t sue, well her won’t win, w/o probably cause right? Anyway it’s not defamation if it be true.
June 30th, 2009 at 6:55 pm
[...] very interesting missed call. The caller ID said Time2Ad. This is the company responsible for the giant scaffolding wrap billboard on the corner of St-Laurent and Sherbrooke Street, so it’s quite surprising that they would be [...]