A GRASSROOTS AWARENESS CAMPAIGN BROUGHT TO YOU BY:
Garth and Jan O’Donnell
The Stop Gambling Adverts Campaign is the initiative of Garth and Jan.
Incensed by the tsunami of gambling adverts on both television and
social media (to name but a few), they hope that putting a small kernel
out there will encourage others to follow suit.
Both having a background in creative and informative arts, Jan worked
for many years in the British Telecom computer division in Bristol,
followed by 20 years in the Bristol Film Industry as a production
accountant. Together, they established roots in Bristol in 1985 with
Bristol Books. A few years later, they founded The Bristolian Cafe (in
partnership with friend Frank Meadowcroft) in 1991, which received a
Civic Award. 1993 saw them branching out in Bedminster, Bristol, with
Bristol Books.
1994 saw the start of the Bristol Art Bank (a no-commission art gallery).
Which, a year later, saw the purchase of The Old Carriage Works on
Jamaica Street, Stokes Croft, Bristol. With two partners in 1995, they
began with the idea of a Transatlantic Slave Trade Museum
along the lines of John Moores (founder of Littlewoods) museum in
Liverpool. This was not encouraged at the time, and without funding
was impossible to initiate. Since the 1995 partnership, the Jamaica
Street Studios has been running ever since and is one of the largest
privately run studio collectives outside of London.
Their message is simply this:
“We are not being evangelical about
banning gambling, but feel that if tobacco advertising has been so
successfully banned (with people still continuing to smoke), surely the
same could apply to gambling advertisements?”
