Reading Response 5

My argument essay was about legalizing gambling and in particular legalizing the creation of casinos on state soil. My main points were based on how well the American Indians have used them on their reservations and that the good side of gambling far out weighed the bad side. My main idea is the number of jobs created by casinos helps out the economy to a large scale. That number exceeds 670,000 jobs. Combine that with the laws on Indian reservations and Casino’s are giving the majority of their 30 billion dollars of revenue back to the community. We should follow in their footsteps.

            My original audience in my paper I thought would be upper scale businessmen, or congressmen, etc, who could use the information and do something about it, this is why I included the facts and logistics to a greater deal. However; I feel just getting the word out to the young and middle aged adults, both male and female would create a bigger impact, and would then lead to changes. So immediately I had an idea in my head, and it was a billboard. I feel that billboards have a great impact on people as they have had a large impact on me. One billboard in particular stands out to me, and that was a non-smoking ad that read: Smoking kills over a hundred thousand people a year. That’s all it said, plain and simple in black and white with the numbers in red. To this day I can clearly remember it even though I saw it over four years ago. I really wanted to model my billboard after this one, because of the impact it had on me. I feel in the right location this could really change people’s minds about casinos.

            I can picture in my head exactly what I want my casino to say and look like. It Will be a giant white billboard with Giant black letters that can be read from miles away. It will read; Indian Casinos open up more than 670,000 jobs. 75% of those jobs go to American Citizens. Do the math. Legalize Casinos in America. The billboard will be placed on highways outside of large cities in states that have not legalized gambling. I chose the white background so it will not have any other distracting features, which will in turn make it visible from a distance. I chose black lettering because it has the largest contrast to the white background and will be easily read as well as stand out on the billboard. The text will have the greatest impact because people will read it, see the fact, become interested because of what is going on with our economy and the jobs that are being lost, they will then research the subject, and America will then become more informed about the positive sides of legalized gambling. I chose this location and audience because they will have the largest effect on getting things done. By “getting things done” I mean expanding the knowledge that legal gambling is a good thing for our economy. Placing it where I want to would mean that the average business man, or traveling family, or basically anyone that drives a car and can read will see. Every time they go in or out of the city they will read it and eventually after passing it over and over again, they will grow intrigued. Inside the city there is too many distractions that could take away from the billboard, and the majority of the working class commutes from outside of the city anyways. The state decision is pretty obvious because that is where it needs to be legalized. It would be pointless to have this billboard outside of Las Vegas because gambling has already been legalized in Nevada and people will not think anything of it.

            This billboard will be appealing for the same reasons the smoking ad was appealing to me. It is plain and simple, it catches you and doesn’t distract, and it gets right to the point. I’ve learned that if you can convince the working class to get things done, get them to vote, get them to buy your product, etc, you have it made. With an ad like this outside of all major cities, the knowledge about this issue will greatly increase.