this post was submitted on 22 Mar 2026
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32
Advice on making an anti-horse racing and anti-gambling PSA? (hexbear.net)
submitted 17 hours ago by Erika3sis@hexbear.net to c/askchapo@hexbear.net
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I'm gonna start doing watch parties of the popular anime series Uma Musume starting six weeks from now. Similar to my vow to create land acknowledgement videos whenever I show for-profit TV/film productions created on Indigenous land, I also want to make a short video before showings of Uma Musume that state in clear terms that the show was created to promote horse betting.

My current script looks like this:

Tonight's feature presentation has financial ties with and seeks to normalize horse racing, a highly exploitative industry predicated on the physical and mental abuse of animals. Horse racing, as well as this cartoon's tie-in video game, finances itself by vampirizing people's wallets through gambling: corporations exploiting human psychology to create a highly addictive waste of your time and money.

DON'T BE A SUCKER! Don't buy gachas! Don't bet on horses! Don't give your money to animal abusers! Your money is better spent on ending the cruel practice of horse racing! The only acceptable amount of money to spend on gambling is zero! Treatments for problem gambling are effective!

Which takes about 32 seconds for me to read out loud.

This script will be set to an instrumental of The Animals' "The House of The Rising Sun", cliché as that song may be; and the visuals may include statistics related to horse racing and/or gambling, and, more importantly, links and QR codes to organizations fighting to end horse racing, and support for overcoming gambling addictions.

And this is the main point where I'd like assistance:

  • What should I link to, specifically? Especially bearing in mind that these videos will be aimed at an international audience.
  • What sorts of statistics should I include?
  • Are there ways the script can be improved? The balance of focus on animal abuse vis-a-vis gambling addiction? More focus on the "normalization" aspect of the show, or that pirating it still contributes to its value as a commodity? The length or brevity?
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[–] Enjoyer_of_Games@hexbear.net 8 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Do Not Do This Cool ThingTo clarify; I don't think horse racing is cool. This is a stock phrase about how these types of warning are ineffective and only serve to reinforce the negative behavior depicted in the media.

[–] Erika3sis@hexbear.net 3 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

If the "cool thing" is tobacco, alcohol, piracy, or hard drugs, and the audience of the PSA is politically disinterested teenagers, then sure. In this case the "cool thing" is animal abuse-based gambling, and the audience is adult leftists. I think that's a very different dynamic: I'm selling not hurting one's fellow creature to people who have already proven themselves to be willing to listen to that sort of rhetoric.

[–] Inui@hexbear.net 8 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (3 children)

I guess I don't really know why you'd even do a watch party for it when it is 100% what you've described. A vehicle meant to drive attention, engagement, and money to vampiric gacha devs and to an inherently cruel and abusive industry. Every time someone memes about Uma Musume characters, I die a little, because that shit has created a new generation of female fans in particular in addition to male anime gooners.

Not that we can't watch media made by/for bad people, but like my assumption is that the people watching are doing it to have a good time, participate in the zeitgeist, and by the end, maybe have their interest piqued in more Uma content? Which that last part seems to be the complete opposite of you'd want. It's not like watching a movie made by a director who later commits horrific crimes unrelated to the film, it's like showing prettified animal ag propaganda for something other than educational purposes.

To actually answer your question though because I really appreciate any attention being given to this (I mentioned it while complaining about Hasan Piker attending horse races), maybe you could keep the PSA brief but put together more resources for a thread/spoilered comment that you link to in the pinned threads? Assuming this is for Blorptube.

Something that doesn't get mentioned a lot is also the 'sports' ties to organized crime. This is an old article, but I'm sure I can dig up something newer. It's literally Yakuza/Sopranos stuff.

[–] JustSo@hexbear.net 7 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

I wonder if anyone's done an effortpost about corporate sponsorship in the anime industry in general.

I don't mind watching a board of tourism sponsored anime about regional iconic desserts, but it is worth understanding that a huge chunk of anime is quite literally long form corporate advertisement.

Cuz I agree with this:

I guess I don't really know why you'd even do a watch party for it when [...]

and more, but without a coherent reason (animal rights stuff being the best argument) it might be a bit arbitrary to draw the line here.

that said I don't have a dog in the race (d'oh) and I don't think watching problematic stuff is inherently problematic. It's cool that erika is doing the work to educate (or provide context to help undermine the propaganda power) because it means people can watch the thing with a critical eye wrt the real world counterpart to the horsegirls and who benefits from their exploitation.

[–] Erika3sis@hexbear.net 5 points 14 hours ago

I originally decided to show Uma Musume as an eventual replacement for My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, basically just a "hey, isn't it interesting how there's another character-driven cartoon show about anthropomorphized horse-girls that's having a moment in Internet culture right now?" type idea. Beyond that, Devoid Of Context™, Uma Musume seems like it could be a fun enough sports-slash-idol show.

My stance is that all media is art, and all art is propaganda: anything you watch to have a good time and participate in the zeitgeist, is something you can and must also watch simultaneously as propaganda for educational purposes. Stuff like PSAs and my own commentary in the chat is how I try to make sure everybody's on the same page about that, that we engage critically with the media we consume. Critically looking at the contradictions depicted in the shows and movies we watch, the circumstances in which the works were created and how we're watching them, should not detract from our enjoyment of the works but add to it. Much of the issue at the core of all of this is really that we live under bourgeois hegemony and control over pop culture through intellectual property.

[–] JustSo@hexbear.net 4 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

That thread you linked is the one where @Awoo@hexbear.net put me on game about how bad jump competitions are. Perhaps she has resources at the ready.

[–] Awoo@hexbear.net 6 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Not for racing broadly really. In the UK I think people are more about chipping away bit by bit so it's the jump racing that I'm familiar with arguments about, it kills so many it's very easy to make the case against it.

[–] JustSo@hexbear.net 3 points 15 hours ago

Same in Aus. It's such a slow incremental thing. People just need their horse suffering treats. (I don't mean the animay but-)

[–] hellinkilla@hexbear.net 6 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

None of this is my zone so I was kind of skeptical of your PSA. So as I always do I read the wikipedia which is one of the least balanced Wikipedia articles ever. It is entirely positive without even a fake controlled opposition type of "controversies" section.

The franchise centers on anthropomorphized racehorses known as Umamusume (ウマ娘; lit. 'horse girls'), who compete in races inspired by real-life race tracks managed by the Japan Racing Association. Most of the characters are named and themed after actual racehorses, reflecting their namesakes' personalities, racing records, and relationships with other racehorses.

The franchise has also helped bring awareness to retired racehorses represented within the franchise, such as Haru Urara and Nice Nature, allowing them to receive donations from the franchise's fans.[157][158][159]

You would probably know better but is it underselling with language like ”has financial ties with"? It seems to me that this must have been created by and for this Japan Racing?

If this Wikipedia page is to be at all believed, this show is a very effective advertisement and propaganda vehicle. There must be information available about the effect this has had on income and popularity of this industry.

This isn't really answering your question because I don't know what are the effective ways to inoculate audience against what is apparently a strong way to convince them to participate in gambling, which is already really compelling to many. The general idea of cognitive inoculation is to describe the ways you might be decieved or swayed so that when it shows up the audience is prepared with an internal counterargument, making the propaganda seem silly and uncompelling. So I guess it depends on what is so alluring about the world of retired horse relationships or whatever..?

[–] Erika3sis@hexbear.net 3 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

I did feel like "financial ties" is underselling the relationship, but I couldn't really think of a better way to put it in as few words as possible. The anime was created most immediately to promote a video game created by Cygames, a giant of "I Can't Believe It's Not Gambling" type mobile games in its own right. So, Uma Musume is not really a work "by" the Japan Racing Association — it was Cygames that approached the horses' owners first, not the other way around — but Uma Musume is nonetheless very much "for" the horse racing industry, which is to say there's a reason why the industry agreed to the partnership so readily: the use of real racehorses' likenesses is a powerful form of "cross-promotion", if we can call it that, to the point where a coworker of mine was genuinely sad about Haru Urara's passing — a horse he never would've heard of without Uma Musume and the memes it has spawned.

[–] hellinkilla@hexbear.net 3 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

So, Uma Musume is not really a work "by" the Japan Racing Association — it was Cygames that approached the horses' owners first, not the other way around

I mean if an advertising company cold calls a business with a pitch for an ad campaign, its still funded by the business. No matter who's idea it was originally. Since the plots involve real horses and such, I assume there had to have been collaboration from the start due to trademarks and such. It is unlikely this game company just happened to create a perfect marketing tool without any significant input from the beneficiaries. Especially as you say this company is functionally not only in gaming but also gambling.

Gambling being one of the most infamously mobbed-up industries, how likely is it that these two businesses don't have intertwined relationships where they work together on things? Serendipity unlikely. There has to be journalism around this?

Anyways that all just me reacting to the concept in general and not really giving much towards the question.

a coworker of mine was genuinely sad about Haru Urara's passing — a horse he never would've heard of without Uma Musume and the memes it has spawned.

Idk what is your audience/venue, if it would fly at all, but maybe you could try to do some kind of "equal time" policy like also showing videos that exhibit the contrary position. Before, after, alternating, insert "anti-commercial breaks" etc. Of course fewer people will watch them, maybe very few, and it's extra work to find and review.

At first I was thinking of the situation like analogous to the many, many TV shows that exist to promote toys, games or other products. But more like a TV show that exists to promote cigarettes. Thinking of other shows that really strongly advocate for a certain position, what could you say at the outset to minimize it? Like what could you say before the X Files to convince people to trust the government, it's fine, nothing is being hidden, and it's really quite unlikely that any aliens could get here?

[–] Erika3sis@hexbear.net 0 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

its still funded by the business. No matter who's idea it was originally.

Yes, very well said.

Idk what is your audience/venue, if it would fly at all, but maybe you could try to do some kind of "equal time" policy like also showing videos that exhibit the contrary position. Before, after, alternating, insert "anti-commercial breaks" etc. Of course fewer people will watch them, maybe very few, and it's extra work to find and review.

My venue is blorp.bot.nu (see !blorp@hexbear.net and !blorptube_on_grad@lemmygrad.ml) and my audience is by and large going to be fellow Hexbear users. When I've done similar "anti-commercials" in the past with other things I've shown, people have responded very well to them. Not that that was an "equal time" policy, though, it was generally shorter videos.

But more like a TV show that exists to promote cigarettes.

Like The Twilight Zone?

[–] hellinkilla@hexbear.net 1 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

actually I was watching some twilight zone a while ago. I can't specifically recall anyone smoking, but probably they did. I did get that old school feeling that it was selling white heterosexuality.

[–] Erika3sis@hexbear.net 1 points 4 hours ago

In the episodes themselves, smoking isn't markedly prominent in my experience, but Rod Serling himself is smoking pretty much every time you see him in the show, and I can recall at least one episode I saw where he starts going on and on about promoting the cigarette brand he's smoking. I'm talking out of my butt but I think there were probably a lot more of those cigarette sponsor segments in the original broadcast of the show which have been removed in rebroadcasts or VODs.

Here's a compilation of Rod Serling cigarette ads from The Twilight Zone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41UqyXqXMpY

[–] JustSo@hexbear.net 5 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago)

This is a really good idea. I don't know where to find the info, but I can attest to having been effectively shocked out of complacent attitudes with facts about:

  • riding crops
  • breeding
  • injury statistics and injury outcomes
  • statistics about how likely a horse is to even make it from foal to competition and what happens if they fail
  • the type of life a retired horse can expect to look forward to (winners/losers male/female - different retirement plans, none of them good unless the horse is very lucky)
  • dunno if its related to the anime but competition jumping is exceptionally risky for injuries

its a real fractal of fuck.

[–] GrouchyGrouse@hexbear.net 3 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

I’d avoid a word like “vampirizing” in spoken word, it works in text but is kinda a mouthful, just use “siphoning” or “draining”

I like the “don’t be a sucker” part, you could reword it differently but it’s a good way to start the your PSA with that type of hook. It gets the audience on your side by acting like their advocate

[–] Erika3sis@hexbear.net 3 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Is a mouthful not in the mouth of the beholder?

[–] GrouchyGrouse@hexbear.net 2 points 13 hours ago

Good point. Mouthful was perhaps too strong a word, it’s just 4 syllables vs 2 data-laughing