Ads Downunder
I think I have just hit my breaking point when it comes to gambling ads and how frequently I see them. I don’t know if I never really paid attention before or if I’m only now realising how saturated the advertising industry and by extension, society is with gambling.
I don’t get through a single day without seeing something that is meant to incite me to gamble, and at this point, it is so ubiquitous it's impossible to not see something, almost like a mandate that I see at least one gambling advertisement a day. They are spread across social media, website banner ads, billboards press ads and even baked into sponsored articles or “News” segments. To avoid them you would literally need to segment yourself from the outside world in isolation.
These large organisations that lord over the gambling industry easily have the capital to dominate digital ad spending so they can pollute your social media feed. If you’re like me and never gamble it’s beyond annoying to have a feed littered with betting app ads. This just lends further to my annoyance with social media, where they are and have been for a long-time now algorithms that feed me things, I'm only transiently interested in. This is done to keep my attention just long enough to serve me an ad in order to wrench some money out of my wallet. It creates this soulless space that only exists to generate profit.
Press ads are easier to avoid, newspapers and magazines as they require you to go out of your way to obtain them. In my opinion, particularly in Australia where the majority of print media is owned by 2 companies, print media is simply reams of paper that are devalued by the ink that is printed on them.
Billboards and signage are harder to avoid as any surface strong enough to support an A0 piece of paper are fair game to hang some advertisement on. Though these only act as subliminal reinforcement of a message so they just act as a phycological nudge to remind you that you might beat the odds and win big.
Thankfully with these if you aren't looking for them they just fade into the background. A brightly coloured sign telling you to take a chance with a picture of a horse blends into the mess of other consumerist garbage that litters our cities and can be confused for consumption ad number 5.
The above are probably everyday examples of what you would consider an ad. Most people who can recognise as much would probably "think well, I know that’s an ad, I don’t want to gamble or gamble myself what's the harm?" Well, that’s the thing the above examples aren’t for you, it's for people who are already gambling or have an interest in getting into it. For those of you that don’t currently gamble, the powers that be have thought up another tactic for you to develop a new addiction.
It is done through sponsored advertisements these present themselves as something other than an ad but is designed to get you to think about taking it up. How often do you see a news story on the prime-time night news about the crazy new jackpot in the lotto? Happens pretty much every time one of the 3 lotto’s pot grows to at least $80 mill or so. The news story is usually about how crazy it is that it's this high, and maybe some on-the-spot interviews with a newsagent and a couple of customers hyping it up. These little segments tell the public that this is a good thing and you should be excited and since it comes from a source that many trust, it seems like something that is ok to participate in.
The same thing happens with sports segments and of course the gambling industries O Week, the race that stops the nation Melbourne Cup, the lead up to which the news media is plastered with betting odds on your favourite funny name hoarse. All of these “news” segments usually cap off the nightly report after the viewer has consumed several negative news reports about violent crimes, international politics, doom and gloom about the economy and other ways in which the viewer is or will suffer. Then the end of the report hits you with this fun up beat story about how you, personally could win it big by betting what little you have on this one simple trick.
It’s done on purpose advertisers know you are more willing to spend money when you are in a heightened emotional state, pump you up to the eyeballs with stress than hit you with a giant dopamine hit and a promise of a release, suddenly a $14 lotto ticket seems like a small thing to try. Hit you a few more times over the years suddenly you notice the press and digital ads a lot more, then before you know it, you're sitting at the pokies dumping another paycheque into the bottomless pit that is the world's most enticing suicide machine.
If you don’t consume news media, don’t worry mate they got you covered after all Gen Z is a new market right for culling, take the above tactic for sponsored news segments and replace it with an influencer or content creator. This process is just a bit simpler however, just send an email to someone with a couple of thousand followers offer them a couple of grand and tell their audience about how much they love using Gambling app number 3, and how much they have won using this app they trust wholeheartedly.
The thing is this is all done every day with the only goal being to take as much money from the masses as possible no matter the harm. The gambling industry is the only one where if a customer kills themselves it is seen as a win, as it means they successfully extracted as much profit from them as possible. I’m tired of seeing the constant drive to destroy my fellow man for profit. All the while the government standing by approving of the practice while pretending to care by making it mandate to have a near-illegible piece of text slapped at the bottom of an ad saying to gamble responsibly. Like thanks, you stopped me in my tracts with that one.
I wish I had a way of ending this that would be a simple solution but there isn’t one the way our society is structured, this is almost guaranteed to continue, with no repercussions for those profiting from the system. In our world, those with the most money can do no wrong and are never at fault for the suffering they cause. The best we can do is band together, organise against the current social structure and demand greater regulations from the government. Anyway, thanks for reading my ranting I hope it works as ok Agitprop.
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