News Corp Australia has published multiple articles by staff writers presented as news about lottery winners but which are advertising products paid for by the lottery and lifted from its promotional material.
The media company earns revenue from publishing the articles and receives a share of the ticket sales through the links, but the articles were not marked as advertorial.
One recent article published on the websites of the Daily Telegraph, news.com.au, the Gold Coast Bulletin, the Courier Mail and the Herald Sun reported on a man who won a Queensland island home package worth $2.5m after he bought a $2 ticket in the Mater Prize Home lottery.
Another recent article, “How a $2 investment could earn you $1500 each week with Mater Prize Home’s latest draw”, was written by a staff reporter and said a $2 ticket and “a little bit of good luck could bring you an annual income of $78,000”. The story includes a link to the lottery’s page where tickets are on sale.
A statement at the end of the article discloses that News Corp has a commercial arrangement with Mater: “We may receive payments from third parties for sharing this content and when you purchase through links in this article. Learn more”.
A spokesperson for Mater confirmed News Corp was an “advertising client”.
The News Corp reporters appear to have written the stories based on promotional material from Mater. The quotes in the news.com.au article and the photographs used are identical to the ones in a story headlined “Meet Aaron – A Mater Prize Home Winner” on Mater’s website.
“‘Come about 12 o’clock I went, oh well, I didn’t win me that house on the golf course,’ Aaron says.
“‘And so I went and played golf. And then I got a phone call ... by the end of it, the hairs on the back of my neck started to stand up and I’m thinking, ‘she’s not going to tell me I’ve won this thing is she?’ and fair enough, she just said you’ve won first prize!’”
The chief executive of the Mater Foundation, Andrew Thomas, is quoted in both stories spruiking the benefits of the lottery: “It’s incredible to witness how Mater Prize Home winners’ lives can change in an instant.”
The day after Guardian Australia contacted News Corp for comment, a paragraph was added to the top of the articles to spell out the commercial arrangement. “This article is published in partnership with Mater Prize Homes. Lottery ticket purchases fund medical research and patient care services. We may receive payments for sharing this content and when readers purchase lottery home tickets through links in this article.”
A News Corp Australia spokesman said: “All editorial content is decided by our editorial teams and published at their discretion independent of influence from any commercial or partnership arrangement. The story of a man whose entire life changed because of a lucky lottery ticket bought to support a charity is clearly newsworthy. Our commercial partnership with Mater is referred to at the end of the story but we are reviewing our production processes to ensure this relationship is clear to our readers.”
The story of the lottery winner, Aaron, was published months after his win.
Charles Livingstone, a gambling researcher at Monash University, said the article was “essentially an advertisement for the lottery”.
“This type of ‘story’ certainly normalises gambling,” Livingstone said.
“It is generally true that lotteries are a relatively low-risk form of gambling but such promotions contribute to the general advertising impression that [forms of] gambling, whether via a bookie, the pokies or a lottery, are all natural and acceptable aspects of a normal life.
“This can be particularly troubling for those with a history of harmful gambling, especially when they are attempting to refrain from further gambling. Advertisements – and this article is clearly an advertisement – are of course intended on normalising the product.”
Livingstone said the odds of winning if purchasing a single ticket were one in 11.19m and the net revenue to the promoter if all tickets were sold would be $22.38m.
“I would argue that this is an unethical and inappropriate way to advertise a gambling product. I would also argue that while it is legal to advertise some forms of gambling (including online bookmakers and lottery products), the regulation around such advertising needs to be significantly improved,” he said.
“Cleaning up gambling advertising needs to address not just annoying bookies’ ads, but also this form of advertising, dressed up as news content.”
