Bad-Ads.co.uk

The growth in online gambling has made it more easy than ever before to join online casinos. To make people aware of their products there are lots of companies advertising on television. Some of these adverts are bad, not because of their production values but because they are show the product in an unrealistic manner. For example, I have just watched an advert for William Hill online casino in which various casino scenes are shown in their domestic equivalence. i.e. man in bath robe walking through the casino, etc. While I think that people should be able to gamble if they want to, I don’t think that the adverts should show people winning in the advert as this is the least likely thing to happen. While, I can see what looks like a man, with his smelly socks on the Blackjack table, who might be losing, this is scene is not nearly as emphasised as the man playing roulette, while is wife drying a saucepan, raking in the Hob-Nobs for chips. The overall impression I am left with is, if I gamble, I will win lots of money while probability theory tells me that the odds are stacked against me.

Afterall, when advertising alcohol, you are not supposed to associate drinking with being cool or having a good time. (Even though I think there are several adverts which do, Stella Artois 4 piano ad for example.)

Apart from the fact that advertising is too frequent. It is always so loud when compared with the sound in the programmes. I almost always have to reach for the remote control to turn down the sound or mute it completely.

The Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) receives hundreds of complaints each year and yet they are found to be within the rules. Currently, the BCAP TV Advertising Standards Code states that: “ads must not be excessively noisy or strident.

The problem arises in the way that the sound is measured. When testing the level of sound it is the peak volume that is measured. However, advertisers in an attempt to make the advert as attention grabbing as possible compress the sound making the quite sounds louder but keeping the peak sound levels within the rules. The result is a sound that is subjectively louder than it would be if it had been recorded naturally.

More information can be found at ASA website.