“What Grazes on Vegas, Can Rot in Vegas”

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The Age online ran a ’story’ on the weekend about Las Vegas, AKA “Hedonist Heaven”. Or maybe it didn’t. Next to the headline, near the ‘Email’ and ‘Print’ icons, there was a little font groaning the word ‘Advertisement’. 

We’re not sure if ‘Advertisement’ was referring to something else on the page (it’s really that small, and really that detached), but the ambiguity was appropriate.

Hedonism at its Best (Image: Courtesy Las Vegas Tourist Authority)

Rob McFarland wrote that – contrary to what you might have heard – Vegas has:

… successfully shaken off its family friendly image of the ’90s, [and] is now an unashamedly indulgent playground for adults. Lured by the assurance that ‘What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas’, record numbers of people are coming to party.

“Shaken off its family friendly image?” How fortunate. And how fickle. Read this intro to Bob Bosch’s 2005 piece for Travel Guide Frommer’s:

Over the years Las Vegas tourism officials have spent a lot of money to convince travelers that their town was not only the perfect place for a bachelor party, a blow-out gambler’s weekend, and the ideal escape for the rich and reckless, but also a great destination for families.

So which is it: family-friendly, or hedonist heaven? Or is it both? And if it’s both is it okay if your ’story’ takes the side that suits your particular market in this particular instance? And does all of that go out of the window if it’s an ‘Advertisement’?

But enough about trivialities that cut to the core of media respectability. We were more offended by the rape of “hedonism”. When we think of hedonism, we think of French Novelist Joris-Karl Huysmans’ A Rebours (Against Nature) where a protagonist retreats into a glorious world of solitary decadence. Fatally encrusting the shell of your tortoise with precious stones works for us.

We didn’t see a single tortoise in Vegas. But we did see lots of enormous tourists encrusted in fast-food and souvenirs.

In 2006 and 2007, Vegas was about four things: families, smoking, gambling, and shopping. You couldn’t swing a stripper without collecting a fat kid choking on a Banana Republic t-shirt 8 sizes too hopeful (paid for by gambling wins and left-over cigarette money). Families are like seagulls in Vegas. We doubt that’s changed in one year.

Now a place can certainly be two things at once; we’re cool with that. But until the Vegas Visitors Authority can work out a way to corral the family element in sterile ghettos, we’re staying away –sorry Mr Mcfarland. We had to use our cigarettes as magic wands last time, warding off children that slithered too close. And it made our gambling hands pretty tired.

But here’s an example of the ‘hedonism’ you might experience in Mr. McFarland’s Vegas:

Celine Dion may have hung up her beret at Caesars Palace but she’s been replaced by three equally high-profile performers – Bette Midler, Cher and Elton John.

Bette, Cher, and Elton? Correct. The holy trinity of hedonism. Their risque, ground-breaking shows often leave us hard and panting in our faded corduroy. 

We can’t talk too much about our own personal Vegas trips because “What Happened in Vegas, Stays Buried in Vegas”. But we can tell you that the seedier and ‘hedonistic’ side is many creches away from the advertorial holiday dreamings Mr MacFarland is peddling at the prophylactic Trump Tower.

Then again, things change. And we weren’t in Nevada as guests of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

Maybe this criticism is a bit harsh. You need to pitch. You need to sell. You need to target. Marketing needs to penetrate different market segments. But it’s a concern if this is where the ‘Travel’ sections of major papers are headed: Advertorialville.

Maybe we’re also a little jealous that Mr McFarland is getting all of these great overseas stories. But he’s the full member of The Australian Society of Travel Writers (ASTW), according to their Website, not us. The ASTW is a non-profit organisation which aims to “serve the traveling [sic.] public”. Members, like Mr. McFarland, pledge to:

• Encourage responsible professional standards of reporting
• Safeguard the professional independence of travel writers
• Promote Australia’s travel writers as a key segment of the travel and communications industries
• Undertake other activities that contribute to the Society’s prime goals of better travel reporting and more satisfying travel

But we’re not sure if that pledge matters if the word ‘Advertisement’ looms small and ambiguous on an indeterminate border of copy. 

But note: If you look at the tiny Google banner ad on the exact same page, you’ll see “Advertisement” directly over that too – except this time the word is twice the size. Strange. How disproportionate. That tiny ad is well-defined; clear as day. 

 

And Note II: For our American readers, we’re not talking about Robert McFarland, the former correspondent, producer and Washington bureau chief of NBC News. He died in 2000. So, fortunately, he feels no shame.

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Filed under The Politics of Advertising, The Politics of Media

Tags: Children, Las Vegas, Media, The Age, Travel, Travel Writing