PZU

[sobieski010]

It seems Kurski's attempts to damage Donald Tusk (for me still one of the
more decent Polish politicians) and PO come back in his face as a boomerang.
Billboardgate is now threathening the master duck himself... what a joke.

[usenetposts]

I think this all came out while I was away in Moscow. Could anyone bring me up
to speed on it?

[ja_karola]

In short, Kurski accused the PO of using the PZU billboards, which they
allegedly purchased at a better price, for their election campaign. After a bit
of digging, what came out was that Tusk bought 8,000 billboards for 6 million
zl. while Kaczynski paid 1 million zl for 12,000 billboards. So who’s cheating?

The billboardgate may become grounds for impeachment although the reasons for it
may not be as interesting as the Lewinskygate.

wiadomosci.gazeta.pl/wiadomosci/1,53600,3439279.html

[usenetposts]

Thanks for that. Grounds for impeachment? Seems a bit rich.

I seem to remember a whole load of Tusk billboards, but I thought they were an
antyreklama anyway, as no-one taught the guy to smile.

[minimus]

> I seem to remember a whole load of Tusk billboards, but I thought they were
an
> antyreklama anyway, as no-one taught the guy to smile.

Smile? We are a gloomy nation, remember?

[usenetposts]

ja_karola napisała:

> In short, Kurski accused the PO of using the PZU billboards, which they
> allegedly purchased at a better price, for their election campaign. After a bi
> t
> of digging, what came out was that Tusk bought 8,000 billboards for 6 million
> zl. while Kaczynski paid 1 million zl for 12,000 billboards. So who’s ch
> eating?

Either way, the billboard owners are the ones who are cheating.

We are talking about in the cheaper case 833 zlotys for a single billboard, for
say two months.

That way, you could actually pay for the billboard itself and the land it
stands on in about a year's rent. They must be in superprofits.

[ja_karola]

You're right; the billboard owners (PZU) are quite the swindlers!
According to my calculations however, Tusk paid 750 zl/billboard while Kaczynski
83.33zl/billboard (silly goose actually starting an investigation). HUGE
difference! PZU directors are the ones deserving an impeachment for using
double standards and obvious siding with PiS.

[usenetposts]

If we agree that even 83.33 PLN per board is enough to give the provider of the
media a perfectly good return on investment, then it would be tough to impeach
the media providers with doing an arms-length deal with Kaczory. If it were
resold at undervalue, then it should have been declared as a donation, which
may not have been allowed by the statute of PZU or national law. I am not up to
speed on who is and who isn't allowed to make party donations.

For me what it shows is that Tusk isn't competent to purchase advertising
space - he pays 9 times what is necessary. A person like this couldn't be
trusted to run a business, let alone a country.

[sobieski010]

From the "Polish Outlook" of 27.06.06:

13 million billboards carrying advertisements for the election of Polish
President Kaczynski were paid for by one firm run by one woman and which firm
had no employees. The firm is registered in a rundown residence in one town and
operated from a residence in another town. And the Polish press is trying to
find out what is going on.
In a move that was apparently an opening shot by the Law and Justice Party,
which, until just recently, a Polish president was a member, for the fall local
elections, a member of Law and Justice Party accused the leading opposition
party Civic Platform of illegal campaign financing of billboards used to
advertise the Civic Platform presidential candidate, Donald Tusk. And Donald
Tusk did not take this lying down. He made counter charges.
And the journalists began their search to find the facts.
The Polish edition of Newsweek carried the results of an investigation done by
reporters for Newsweek that has opened many eyes and generated many questions in
Poland. It took them some time to find the company that had handled the payments
for the 13 million billboards that were placed all around Poland for the Polish
presidential campaign of Polish President Lech Kaczynski. They founded the
company was registered in a dilapidated and uninhabited residence. And then took
them more time find the owner of the company will live in another town. The
company is claimed by the woman owner to have existed for five years, have no
employees, and to have been operating illegally for its entire time in existence.
That 13 million billboards with casts of the hands of a one-woman firm with to
help employees has raised red flags around Poland and journalists are scrambling
to get the full background on the financing of the presence billboards. What
started out as an attack by Law and just this party against the Civic Platform
has now turned into a defensive action by the Law and Justice Party against the
prying eyes of inquisitive Polish journalists.
The reaction all Law and Justice Party at the higher levels is that they did not
know what was going on. It would seem that the next step in this battle is for
the journalist to find out really how much they did not know.

[minimus]

> For me what it shows is that Tusk isn't competent to purchase advertising
> space - he pays 9 times what is necessary. A person like this couldn't be
> trusted to run a business, let alone a country.

Your right. In Poland if your honest your a sucker. You have to be at least
cwany to get ahead.

[gfunkallstars]

ja_karola napisała:
You're right; the billboard owners (PZU) are quite the swindlers!

Since when have PZU been billboard owners? I think you have got your wires
crossed somewhere.

[ja_karola]

Generally politicians hire PR firms for their election campaigns. Neither Tusk
nor Kaczynski bought billboard space personally so we cannot speculate who is a
better businessman. If we use the names Kaczynski or Tusk it’s simply for the
sake of brachylogy. In the case of PO, the purchase was done by PR firms News
Outdoors and Clear Channel and none of them worked for the PZU campaign “Stop
wariatom drogowym” (“Stop road madmen?”. PZU is accused of financing the PiS
election campaign because the billboard space was resold at undervalue and PiS
was accused of buying this space at an unusually low price.

The PZU campaign was serviced by firms AMS and Stroer and following the halt of
this controversial campaign, the billboards were plastered with PiS posters. The
PZU bought the billboard space for 50 mln zl. thus becoming owners of the space.
Once the slogan “Stop road pirates” was changed to “stop road madmen” (a
self-destructive change) and the Polish Psychiatric Association was notified to
intervene, the campaign was stopped due to accusations of political
incorrectness and insensitivity to the mentally ill. The billboard space was
subsequently resold at 3% of its original value. Quite a good deal wouldn’t you
say?

We’ll see who profited from this scam as the investigation unfolds. We’ll see
why the slogan was changed, who was behind it all and just how much the
taxpayers lose from all this.

[usenetposts]

I must say I think you write extremely well, karola. I am finding out most of
what I know about this from your treatment of it.

It looks like becoming a case study in how to cover-up your donations and your
true advertising spend.

I remember commenting at the time of the PZU "road madmen" campaign that I
thought it was highly offensive. I can't rmember if I did that here or
elsewhere, but I think it was here.

[ja_karola]

usenetposts napisał:

> I must say I think you write extremely well, karola. I am finding out most of
> what I know about this from your treatment of it.

Thanks Dave; a true complement when coming from you.
I'm sad to say that I'll be checking in only sporadically from now on as I'm
getting ready for the big move to Copenhagen. I should be there by mid-August
but I have a million things to do before then.

In the meantime, as you may have noticed from subsequent posts, my mom has taken
over the computer. Hopefully it was a one-time invasion... she usually sticks
to kobieca polonia.

Cheers!
K.

[gfunkallstars]

ja_karola napisała:

>
> Generally politicians hire PR firms for their election campaigns. Neither Tusk
> nor Kaczynski bought billboard space personally so we cannot speculate who is a
> better businessman. If we use the names Kaczynski or Tusk it’s simply for
> the
> sake of brachylogy. In the case of PO, the purchase was done by PR firms News
> Outdoors and Clear Channel and none of them worked for the PZU campaign “
> Stop
> wariatom drogowym” (“Stop road madmen?”. PZU is accused of f
> inancing the PiS
> election campaign because the billboard space was resold at undervalue and PiS
> was accused of buying this space at an unusually low price.
>
> The PZU campaign was serviced by firms AMS and Stroer and following the halt of
> this controversial campaign, the billboards were plastered with PiS posters. Th
> e
> PZU bought the billboard space for 50 mln zl. thus becoming owners of the space
> .
> Once the slogan “Stop road pirates” was changed to “stop roa
> d madmen” (a
> self-destructive change) and the Polish Psychiatric Association was notified to
> intervene, the campaign was stopped due to accusations of political
> incorrectness and insensitivity to the mentally ill. The billboard space was
> subsequently resold at 3% of its original value. Quite a good deal wouldn̵
> 7;t you
> say?
>
> We’ll see who profited from this scam as the investigation unfolds. We&
> #8217;ll see
> why the slogan was changed, who was behind it all and just how much the
> taxpayers lose from all this

I realise all this having kept up with the news on it. That's why I was
surprised at your post saying that PZU were the billboard owners.

I agree that selling the space at such a huge discount was a great deal for
someone but I don't think it automatically means there was some kind of "układ"
at work as certain politicians have suggested. Tour operators sell their unsold
holidays as "last minute" with huge discounts so why shouldn't other companies
do the same. It seems perfectly logical to sell something you've bought but
can't use for a discount in order to try and recoup losses rather than let it go
to waste.

[babiana]

I advise the SLD troll to click on Google PZU, afera.You will find 293 000
results on 32 pages. Even I'm fluent in Polish I would not have patience to read
all this data. This institution is plagued by corruption scandals since 1999
when its privatization process has started. Billboardgate is of less importance
in comparison to previous ones. PZU was the biggest insurance company handling
60% of insurance market in Poland (24% in Central Europe). This fact explains
why PZU is a subject to so many scandals. Privatization of PZU was another
example which showed how far could reach feelers of businessmen with communist
safe conduct in their pockets.

[gfunkallstars]

babiana napisała:

> I advise the SLD troll to click on Google PZU, afera.You will find 293 000
> results on 32 pages. Even I'm fluent in Polish I would not have patience to rea
> d

An SLD troll! You are hilarious. I don't have an SLD bone in my body and
although I may not contribute as often as some people, I am no troll.

Is Waldek back with a new name?

[babiana]

gfunkallstars napisał:

> babiana napisała:
>
> > I advise the SLD troll to click on Google PZU, afera.You will find 293 00
> 0
> > results on 32 pages. Even I'm fluent in Polish I would not have patience
> to rea
> > d
>
> An SLD troll! You are hilarious. I don't have an SLD bone in my body and
> although I may not contribute as often as some people, I am no troll.
>
> Is Waldek back with a new name?

Accept my apologies. I am just Karola's mother.

[gfunkallstars]

> Accept my apologies.I am just Karola's mother.

OK. I was insulted but it is also quite funny. The first time I suffered an
unprovoked cyber attack!

Your son posts nicely and is seems to be a well educated and polite guy. Where
did he learn his manners?

[babiana]

gfunkallstars napisał:

> > Accept my apologies.I am just Karola's mother.
>
> OK. I was insulted but it is also quite funny. The first time I suffered an
> unprovoked cyber attack!
>
> Your son posts nicely and is seems to be a well educated and polite guy.
Where did he learn his manners?

First of all, karola is my daughter (not son) and I’m pleased to say that I can
take some credit for her good manners.

My problem is that the communist state has taught me to always read between the
lines and I may be a bit oversensitive, but I sensed some post-communist siding
in your posts. When you compared PZU (one of their last bastion) to tour
operators last minute unsold holidays, it upset me. Perhaps my judgment was too
harsh or perhaps you may not understand the complexity of this scandal. In the
end though I had a good laugh out of all this, but perhaps I should stick to my
regular forum; Kobieca Polonia.

[babiana]

My post was the answer to gfunkallstars