MILITARY PAY-TO-PLAY?
MCCC’s ‘military-friendly’ designation from company embroiled in scandal
WEST WINDSOR » Last year, Mercer County Community College was named the No. 1 “military-friendly” two-year school in the country by a media organization.
However, that honor may be tainted after the company, Victory Media, reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Thursday over its alleged practice of allowing schools to be promoted as “military-friendly” if they purchased ads.
“Servicemembers and their families put themselves on the line every day to protect our nation,” acting FTC Chairman Maureen K. Ohlhausen said in a press release. “We owe it to them to make sure that when they look to further their education, they get straight talk instead of advertising in disguise.”
A MCCC spokesman contended Friday that the college did not spend any money with Victory Media to earn the media organization’s highest honor.
“We have not paid nor would we ever pay for any type of survey for the purpose of getting any type of favorable ranking,” MCCC spokesman Jim Gardner said. “We’re certainly proud of the fact that Victory Media — through their objective selection process — selected us as a ‘military-friendly’ school.”
Gardner said Victory Media, which publishes the magazines G.I. Jobs, the Guide to Military Friendly Schools, and Military Spouse and runs websites, made a pitch to MCCC at a meeting to advertise in upcoming editions but the college “politely declined.”
“It’s no different from any other media organization that relies on advertising dollars to support the publication,” Gardner said. “We make the decisions based upon the funding available and reaching our target demographic. We had not done business with Victory Media previously and due to the fact that we are very frugal with the advertising dollars that we have, we have not purchased advertising subsequently.” The leader of a national veteran nonprofit organization that started investigating Victory Media’s practices in 2013 and published a report in 2016 said Friday it was “great that the FTC recognized the problem and took some action.”
“This was a total scam and it was scamming veterans,” said Carrie Wofford, president of Veterans Education Success. “It was presenting to veterans and selling to veterans schools as being ‘military-friendly’ when they were actually schools that were paying for the designation. Not every school paid, but it was a big pay-to-play scheme.”
Some schools could pay up to $60,000 to reach the highest level of advertising, according to information obtained by the nonprofit.
An example Wofford provided is that once a college paid for advertising, Victory Media would hit up veterans.
“Victory Media would do things like email the veterans constantly, ‘You should go to this school. It’s the best military-friendly school,’” Wofford said. “And it was just a paid promotion.”
Wofford also said she has heard from a “number of community colleges and public universities” that alleged Victory Media “put the squeeze on them to pay because it’s a pay-to-play designation.”
Gardner claimed MCCC was not pressured hard for advertising.
In an email, a Victory Media spokeswoman said for a college to be included on the Pittsburgh-based company’s “militaryfriendly” list, “the methodology and weighting is based on many different complex inputs, is statistically driven and then audited by Ernst & Young.”
“As a leader in our industry, we are pleased to have reached this agreement and move forward working with regulators to ensure transparency between editorial and advertisements for readers in all forms of new and traditional media,” Victory Media spokeswoman Suzanne Trevino said. “This agreement illustrates that we strive to continuously raise the standard for transparency, ensuring that the information and disclosures on our sites are clear and conspicuous to our readers.”
MCCC’s spokesman felt the settlement does not diminish with what the college has accomplished in serving veterans or belittle its distinction from Victory Media.
“Within the previous year, Mercer County Community College had opened a veterans resource center, had brought in a new veterans resource director and expanded the veterans resource staff,” Gardner said, noting in September 2016, the Military Order of the Purple Heart presented MCCC with a similar distinction. “It was something that we worked hard to achieve. Victory Media certainly validated the information that we received from other outside sources that we were making real progress in services to veterans.”
With the settlement, Victory Media faces a fine of $40,654 for each violation.