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 [...]
July 8th, 2009 at 8:02 pm
Time2ad, what a scam !!! They owe money not only here in Canada but I have heard that they scammed people in Japan to open up a branch there but never actually paid for anything, they owe sales reps, landlords, lawyers, advertisers and who knows who else. I heard from a source though that the Japanese Government is now investigating the issue and lets hope some legal actions come of this.
Reclaim The Main !!!
July 9th, 2009 at 8:44 pm
An update for everyone, from my contact in Japan.
Although the case is still under deliberation in Japan he was able to tell me some information about the situation. Matthew Alzubi owes money to a major legal firm (smart huh??), a large international real estate holding company, and his former employee in Japan. According to Japanese law if a person bring complaints against someone and can show that the other person ignores the claims guilt is assumed. This is what has happened.
All three parties tried to get a reply to their claims from Time2ad but were ignored and then they filed a class action suit together in the Japanese Courts. This is pretty much an open and close case as they have all the evidence of lack of response and also all the receipts. Once this case is finished in Japan, they will all be following similar legal action in Canada as Time2ad has also ignored claims here in Canada as well, once the case is about to be filed here in Montreal I will post information for all who are interested in joining the class action lawsuit. Looks like they will finally get what they deserve.
July 13th, 2009 at 6:03 pm
Thanks! I am keen to hear more about this scam!
July 23rd, 2009 at 12:27 pm
Alzubi and Kausel need to go down.
I was conned into working form them for months-all one big pack of lies ‘habibe’…
Alzubi is a liar and cannot be trusted.
He had a very decent man working for him who was dependent upon the promised salaries (I never received one and left after 2 months) to pay his medical bills for a heart transfer.
He is now deceased as he could not afford the surgery.
Its digusting.
Alzubi also has previous drug history in Canada and has previously been in prison.
The government need to bring them down now.
Kausel is merely a disciple to Alzubi – lacks intelligence and believes anything
This all comes first hand
July 23rd, 2009 at 1:53 pm
I can’t wait for the class action lawsuit to take place in Montreal. Matthew Alzubi still owes our group thousands of dollars and has shown no remorse about us losing all that money while he pockets it. After trying to get it for a long time, he just makes up stories about when the payment is coming and avoids face to face meetings after insisting he will show up and pay.
Regarding the other post where you discuss his threats to this blog, don’t believe any of it. He’s all bark and no bite. On several occassions he went on and on about he was absolutely going to sue some people who apparently stiffed him on some payments and in the end he let it go. He operates from a low-key (some would say “shadowy”) position and didn’t want to bring anything out in the open.
The Japanese case you refer to is tied to their “branch” in Japan. It was apparently headed up by Nabil Khan. Here is his linkedin profile with mention of Nabil being the “Vice-President of Operations, Japan at Time2ad”
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/nabil-khan/2/6b7/b97
I would not trust Matthew for anything. He’s a master at convincing people that everything is going to be great for anyone who’s involved with him. Nothing could be further from the truth.
July 23rd, 2009 at 3:07 pm
if anyone needs contact info for them for the authorities i will happily provide it…
July 23rd, 2009 at 3:41 pm
FYI…They are linked with LM Sauve who get the client for the construction work and then Time2Ad focus on that site for the scam…
July 23rd, 2009 at 3:47 pm
http://www.mediaincanada.com/articles/mic/20090707/turkishairlines.html?word=turkish&word=airlines
July 29th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
If nobody got paid, from the Landlord, labbores on the site, and go on…
Did these people fill a complaine against TIME2AD for not getting paid …
October 13th, 2009 at 8:30 pm
[...] who’s been to the Main lately will notice that this is anything but the case. From the giant scaffolding wrap billboard mounted last summer by an allegedly dubious promoter, to the billboard trucks that drive up the [...]