So, there's this commercial. It's advertising some kind of help line for people with gambling problems. It starts out with 3 women standing at a public bathroom counter, you can hear music, and they're all putting on lipstick and touching up. The first woman says "Can you believe her? Her kids are at home alone every night and she's always borrowing money and she knows she cant pay it back." (or something to that effect, I didn't memorize the commercial). the second woman makes a similar comment and the third woman says "actually, I was her, until I got help". That is when the first two woman say "You're kidding" and "But you look so normal" and leave the bathroom. The woman they were apparently talking about then comes out of the stall and says to the woman who got help "Can I talk to you?" - then the voice over gives you the toll free number and blah blah blah...
I have a few problems with this.
The first is: THEY'RE in the casino too! If they're always there to see that this woman is spending so much time in the casino, aren't they spending too much time there too?
Second: This woman who supposedly "got help"... I know I don't even need to say it... SHE'S in the casino too! wow. I don't even wan't to elaborate on that. But I will. If you are an addict, I don't care what you're addicted to, and you seek help - from professionals - they will tell you that ANY relapse is still a relapse. You don't see recovered alcoholics (ya, the ones who actually want to stay quit) casually visiting bars on the regular. NO. This is where the commercial lost all credibility for me.
Third: It's a crap commercial! I'm glad I don't have a gambling problem, and I'm sorry if you do. You never know, though, you might just meet a recovering gambler in your local casino's bathroom and get some advice over appletini's.
Seriously.
