The highly connected PC ad firm Highwood Communications has filed for bankruptcy protection after leaving unpaid bills totalling more than $5.3 million…
Highwood has held the government’s exclusive ad-buying contract for more than 10 years, handling $41.3 million in public money in that time. They used that cash to buy newspaper, radio, television, magazine and online ads on behalf of the government in exchange for roughly four per cent of the total amount.
Highwood’s owner, Barry Styles, is a Conservative party insider and was most recently part of the creative and advertising team for Premier Ed Stelmach‘s spring election campaign. Before that, he produced ads for former Canadian Alliance leader Stockwell Day and worked on PC election campaigns.
Styles could not explain how his company took $6.5 million in public money last year, yet still owed so much to the media companies. …
This is not the first time a company owned by Styles has been in such trouble. Highwood Communications Sask. went bankrupt in 1998, leaving unpaid bills totalling $582,220. At the time it went under, the company was the advertising firm of record for at least four Saskatchewan government departments. Styles said the two incidents are unrelated.
