Are Advertising and Sports Sponsorship the Last Sanctioned Bases of Corporate Corruption?
By Rudy Socha Lorain, OH – Can you imagine the repercussion if your corporate procurement department was receiving season tickets to sporting events or invitations to celebrity parties in return for multi-million dollar contracts? How are your company’s marketing department and advertising department getting away with procurement contract behavior that has been banned in most companies for over 30 years? The first and most important reason they get away with this is because it’s sanctioned and all of the senior executives are receiving a small slice of the freebee graft. In most cases, it is the company’s CEO who wants those free (company paid) loge seats or to be seen at that celebrity party. To pacify any possible opposition in his company, the CEO usually shares the loge and party invitations with members of the company’s board of directors and senior executives. Unless the sponsorship buyers represent a beer company, male clothing lines, or another product with a heavy male demogra
