University Distinguished Professor of Law at Northeastern Richard Daynard cut his teeth on establishing the legal responsibilities of the tobacco industry in the days of big-budget media wars between Camel and Marlboro, so when he states current US sports betting advertising is doing a better job reaching people than peak tobacco era ad campaigns from 1913 to the 1980s, it’s quite the statement.

creating a massive market for a previously nonexistent product category”

Daynard stated that over the past few months, mobile sportsbook advertising had done such a good job of reaching a new audience and “creating a massive market for a previously nonexistent product category.”

The professor effectively said if the biggest four ad campaigns of tobacco’s silver screen and TV heyday were to compete against contemporary sportsbook ads, the saturation, or reach, of the modern variety was by far the winner.

The big four US campaigns Daynard is referencing — Camel in 1913, Lucky Strike in the 1920s, Marlboro in the 1950s, and Joe Camel in the 1980s — triggered a massive increase in cigarette smoking.

While Daynard labels US major leagues “sell outs” and wants sports betting ads stopped, he’s also streetwise enough to know that, just like Joe Camel and co. did, sportsbooks will come at advertising from multiple new angles. Daynard stated that by the time any sports betting ad legislation passes, ad agencies would have “30 other things up their sleeve.”

FanDuel’s Rob Gronkowski Kick of Destiny campaign proves Daynard’s point that: “There are lots of ways to do an advertising campaign.”