The Big Picture
- Telemarketers is a hard-hitting docuseries that exposes the corrupt and illegal practices of a New Jersey-based telemarketing company called CDG.
- CDG solicits donations for various causes but keeps 90-100% of the money, leaving only a small percentage for the organizations they claim to represent.
- The show focuses on a long-time CDG employee named Pat Pespas, a heroin addict and top salesman, who exemplifies the morally bankrupt culture of the company.
It's one of those things that we could all just do without, right? Just as you've sat down for a nice meal (usually dinner) the phone rings, and it's a telemarketer trying to sell you something or to donate to a cause you didn't even know existed. The savviest of you probably have a screening system in place on your cell for unrecognized numbers, but occasionally, these nimrods will get through, and you're left with the choice of being rude and hanging up, or politely telling them to go kick rocks. Maybe you donate to the cause. Whatever the case, you definitely need to check out the new Safdie Brothers docuseries on HBO MAX called Telemarketers. It's an unapologetic look at the cutthroat and corrupt nature of the ubiquitous business that has been the bane of our existence ever since Alexander Graham Bell invented this thing called the telephone.
Who Are the Safdie Brothers?
Josh and Benny Safdie are brothers who are based out of New York and up until this point in their careers, they have largely told stories about New Yorkers and people from neighboring New Jersey. They started out making documentaries like Telemarketers, but in recent years have also written and directed acclaimed feature films like Uncut Gems with Adam Sandler in 2019, and Good Time starring Robert Pattinson in 2017. The brothers return to their true story roots with the story of a telemarketing conglomerate called Civic Development Group which is based in New Jersey. And though they are only producers on the project, the style that directors Adam Bhala Lough and Sam Lipman-Stern use is clearly influenced by some of the Safdie brothers' gritty and unapologetic earlier documentary work including Lenny Cooke, the story of high school basketball phenom and his journey to make it to the NBA. There is a pronounced Big Apple attitude to their work, and Telemarketers is the latest. Lipman-Stern was actually a long-time employee of the company that he is exposing in the film, and took part in all the bizarre activity that went on in the call center on a daily basis,
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What Is 'Telemarketers' About?
Well, you probably guessed from the title that Telemarketers is a documentary about a New Jersey-based company Civic Development Group, or CDG, a firm that has been in existence since the early 90s and has taken in more money than any other telemarketing company in the country by a wide margin. The series takes an in-depth look at the seedy underbelly of the people that are not only on the other end of the phone when they call you, but the corporate executives at the top who are making millions of dollars every year turning a blind eye. Their methods are usually unsavory and oftentimes flat-out illegal. There's so much wrong with this business and CDGs dealings that it's hard to know where to begin, but we'll start with the standard hiring procedures. At the main New Jersey call center, CDG is made up of both criminals on probation and active drug addicts. It is one of the few jobs in the country where these individuals with extensive criminal records can find work that offers what is close to a living wage. It is mentioned several times in the first episode that you don't know what kind of crimes the person in the cubicle next to you has committed. It has a frat house environment that includes getting tattoos, open alcohol consumption, rampant drug use all the way to sexual relations in the bathrooms.
What Are the Telemarketers Selling?
So what are all these oddballs and misfits doing on the phone all day? The biggest racket that CDG has is soliciting donations for all manner of causes and groups that barely see any of the money that they bring in. CDG will cut a large check to an organization like the New Jersey Fraternal Order of Police for the right to call people and say that they represent the police officer's fund and that the proceeds will benefit the families of the officers who have been killed in the line of duty. The truth is that CDG keeps 90% to 100% of every dollar that they raise. Only 10% or less goes to the group that they are claiming to represent. In years past, CDG has also fraudulently claimed to represent many other charitable organizations representing the families of dead officers, retired firefighters from Maine, police officers of Utah, and critically ill children to something as ambiguous as a so-called "Cancer Survivors Fund" (sounds like The Human Fund from Seinfeld - money for people, right?). It's a George Costanza-level shameless racket, and they are using the telephone as a weapon. There is a joke in the first episode that CDG really stands for "Criminals Doing Good", but they are actually criminals doing what they do best - very illegal things.
Patrick J. Pespas is A Great Example of a CDG Employee
The first episode of the show spotlights one of the longest-tenured CDG employees and telemarketers named Pat Pespas. Lipman-Stern sort of tongue-in-cheek bills Sespas as a "telemarketing legend" but in reality, he's little more than a burned-out ex-con who has a severe heroin addiction. He does drugs before, during, and after making his calls all day long. In fact, the whole episode has the feel of the acclaimed documentary Dopesick Love which is also set in the New York area and depicts the daily lives of four crooks and addicts over a 12-month period. And management looks the other way because Sespas is also one of the top salesmen in the entire company. Sespas literally goes from a heroin-induced nod-off directly into an articulate scripted phone solicitation. So in some respects, he is legendary, but he encapsulates everything that is morally scattered and illegal about CDG.
In one scene, former workers tell stories of every other employee being a drug dealer, and that any drug you wanted could be had within the building, and Sespas, while charismatic and engaging, is a middle-aged poster boy for everything that is wrong with the industry. He earned the nicknames, "Pat the Tapper" and "Pat the Smacker" because of frequent trips to the bathroom to do heroin and is highly regarded by his colleagues - probably because he is still able to function as a hardcore drug addict. Sespas even encourages Lipman-Stern to capture him as he snorts heroin on camera before going to work, and the boiler room culture of CDG encourages that type of behavior. Lipman-Stern added in an interview with USA Today, "They were selling massive amounts of drugs out of the office. There was a heroin kingpin that was working there. … There was prostitution in the office.”
'Telemarketers' Is One of the Most Important Docuseries HBO MAX Has Made
This is important stuff that is being uncovered in this show, and we can say that after seeing just the first episode. These predators have the ability to get into our ears with a single keystroke. The next time you see that dreaded "unknown caller" or, "likely spam" message pop up on your cell, remember who may be on the other end of the line. Their job depends on pulling your hard-earned money from your wallet. It could be Pat Pespas, who is calling for a fraudulent organization, so he can get his next fix. The shame of it is that it's all perfectly legal and the million-dollar business model relies entirely on people being uninformed, gullible, and bullied about what's real and what isn't.
Use this article as a public service announcement of sorts and make sure that if you are going to give over the phone, the entity on the other end of the line is thoroughly vetted and vouched for. Or else is just going up the nose of CDG employees like Patrick J. Pespas. Stay tuned as future episodes are set up for Sespas to become a mole for the director, Lipman-Stern, as the two try to blow the lid off the whole thing.
