The recent Ladbrokes adverts are the equivalent of a drug dealer at the school gates
Advertisers have been cynically exploiting the vulnerable since Edward Bernays, and bookmakers have been doing it since before Jesus Christ, so expecting them to get together and produce something that demonstrates anything other than willful contempt for the population is naïve. And I’m not naïve. I’m sceptical of fluoride, and I always thought Rolf Harris was too good to be true. Like a sheep with alopecia, there’s no wool over my eyes. However, even by the rock-bottom standards these industries have set for themselves, Labrokes’ new Ladbrokes Life campaign is a shocking low.
The adverts consist of a Lock Stock-style montage of five geezers on a quest to live the ‘Ladbrokes life’. Which is to say, they’re on a quest to gamble a lot. Ladbrokes don’t offer a range of leisure activities, and they don’t sell any other goods. Ladbrokes is exclusively a bookmaker. So if someone is living the Ladbrokes life, they’re either gambling or they’re asleep. Possibly while a group of people take bets on whether they snore.
Each of the five gurning morons in the advert has his own unique gambling characteristics. These define his entire personality. Oddly, they don’t include the ‘sweaty alcoholic who hates his life’, so it’s already some way off the mark in its portrayal of most regulars at any bookmaker I’ve ever been in. First up is ‘Mr Brightside’, a man who looks like he’s wearing a comedy prosthetic mask of his own face. He seems like the sort of happy go lucky fucker we all dream of being. He doesn’t care if he loses, he just does a funny dance. If he was a battery, he would be “positive at both ends”. If he was a real human being, he’d be living alone in a bedsit, seeing his daughter once a month, desperately trying to explain to her why he’s giving her toe nails and dust again for her birthday.
Imagine Requiem for a Dream as directed by Guy Ritchie. Also, take out any of the negative consequences of doing heroin. A Requiem for a Dream where they talk in cockney accents, inject a bit of heroin every now and then, have a laugh, and go about their daily life unburdened by the crippling horrors of addiction. That’s the Ladbrokes life. Mr Brightside doesn’t care about losing because he’s apparently only lost a few quid. Which must add up, given he does nothing but gamble. The advert keeps quiet regarding the fella’s career, he could well be an arms dealer. And what’s a few quid, says the voiceover, it’s the price of a pint. Because those are the only two options: a pint of lager or placing a bet. For the many people who are addicted to both, that often is the choice. That they don’t shy away from this is something. And credit should be given that they manage to refrain from explicitly telling you to gamble and drink at the same time, although, the Ladbrokes lads constantly holding a drink while they gamble and guffaw and dribble down themselves does heavily imply that it’s a super fun thing to do.
“Our challenge was to rise above the general noise in the market. We’re already delivering dramatic improvements in our products and services, and it’s time to make a real statement and say to customers that Ladbrokes understand you, knows what you like and how you bet,” explained Andy May, brand research and retail marketing director at Ladbrokes. Which makes it sound like Andy May is pilfering through your bins while you sleep, desperately looking for clues on how to hook you into gambling. Which may not be far from the truth, he sounds like the kind of bastard that would. Incidentally, cocaine dealers also know what cocaine addicts like. They like cocaine. The advert’s voiceover adopts the tone of a man standing outside a school gate in a long coat trying to convince you to do a line. Go on, he says, go oooon, have a bet, just one won’t hurt. They promote their product with startling similarity to drug dealers, offering free tasters to get you started. Then there’s the constant barrage of advertising on television, the internet pop-ups, the daily emails as soon as you sign up to an online account, begging you to come back and gamble.
The danger with the adverts is not simply that they’re trying to get people in through the doors by skirting over addiction, that the fun they’re having glorifies gambling and ignores the downsides. They also seem to be actively trying to dissuade compulsive gamblers from seeking help. The ‘gamble responsibly’ that pops up on screen at the end almost looks like it’s been put there as an ironic joke given the tone of the advert and the ease with which the men portrayed can gamble constantly whilst limiting themselves to a few quid at a time. Gamble responsibly? Of course you will, you’re one of these chaps about town. You’re a real jack the lad, and jack the lads don’t get addicted to gambling. The idea that the carefree, happy-go-lucky everyman doesn’t get addicted to gambling makes it all the harder for people to admit to themselves when they are addicted, it makes them feel subnormal. But they’re not subnormal. The last Gambling Prevalence Survey found that the UK had an estimated 350,000 problem gamblers. That was in 2010. Since then, nothing has been done to stifle the aggressive marketing strategies of gambling companies, and with smartphones and tablets making it easy to gamble anywhere, that number is constantly growing, especially among the young people that the Ladbrokes life aims to seduce.