Milwaukee influencers still not buying Potawatomi's anti-competition argument

It’s Week 3 of the Forest County Potawatomi’s $200,000 anti-competition ad campaign, and Milwaukee influencers still aren’t buying what Potawatomi’s silly “No East Coast” ads are trying to sell.

WTMJ-AM’s Charlie Sykes deftly dissected one of the Potawatomi ads during his show late last week. A few highlights:

** “Wisconsin Gaming for Wisconsin,’ OK, cut through all that smoke and mirrors…it’s the Potawatomi that like having a monopoly.”

** “All of the elected officials…the prominent elected officials who were at the press conference last week in Kenosha and Racine…said ‘yeah, we want this.’ This business community says they want this. They’ve had referendums where the voters have said they want this. So who outside of Connecticut would want this? Well, the people in Kenosha and Racine, not to mention…the Menominee, who are actually from Wisconsin. They would also like this as well.”

** “(The ads say) this will not bring jobs to Milwaukee. Well, no…it will bring jobs to Kenosha. Which is why the people in Kenosha…want it to be in Kenosha.”

** “The Mohegan are still the minority to the Menominee…the invisible tribe. My understanding is the Menominee actually went to the Potawatomi and said, “Would you like to be our partners in this?” And the Potawatomi said “No, we got our deal…we got our set-up in Milwaukee…why would we want to help you guys?”

** “What’s really going on here is that the Potawatomi have a lot more money…they’ve got an investment to protect…they do not want to have any competition.”

And while economic studies show that competition can flourish in Southeast Wisconsin, and that Milwaukee will continue to do just fine with a Kenosha casino in place, we love Charlie’s suggestion for a new tagline for Potawatomi’s commercials. “Milwaukee loses, Kenosha wins, and the Menominee get the money that we want all of!”

Charlie recently included Potawatomi’s ads as a topic on his weekly TV show as well. Milwaukee PR exec Jeff Fleming has an interesting take on the matter – he says the Potawatomi are trying to create an issue to protect their monopoly, and are conveniently ignoring the fact that they had outside help when they established their own off-reservation casino nearly two decades ago.

Help put an end to Potawatomi’s anti-competition hypocrisy by signing the online petition.