Room tax dollars should not go to a business which profits from drug trafficking
In 2023, ad payments from Destination Door County included the following: https://doorcountytourismzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/12-2023-DDC-December-2023-Monthly-Report.pdf#page=6
$24,051.85 for Meta Remarketing
$84,250.80 for Meta Prospecting
$34,118.68 for Meta Sustainability Prospecting
These numbers come from multiplying the cost per click by the number of clicks. Altogether, these three expenditures add up to $142,421.33.
It appears that the statistics for 2024 are not published, but multiple recent monthly reports on https://doorcountytourismzone.com/ddc-marketing-reports/ indicate that paid ads were also taken out with Meta Platforms in 2024.
Meta Platforms has been documented placing ads for drugs: https://www.wsj.com/tech/meta-cocaine-opioids-ads-dea8e0fc?st=wt8u1faka3muykq’
Meta Platforms is running ads on Facebook and Instagram that steer users to online marketplaces for illegal drugs, months after The Wall Street Journal first reported that the social-media giant was facing a federal investigation over the practice.
The company has continued to collect revenue from ads that violate its policies, which ban promoting the sale of illicit or recreational drugs. A review by the Journal in July found dozens of ads marketing illegal substances such as cocaine and prescription opioids, including as recently as Friday. A separate analysis over recent months by an industry watchdog group found hundreds of such ads.
The industry watchdog group mentioned in the quote is the Tech Transparency Project, which reported its findings in “Meta Allows Drug Ads Selling Everything from Opioids to Cocaine”: https://www.techtransparencyproject.org/articles/meta-allows-drug-ads-selling-everything-from-opioids-to-cocaine
It isn't proven that ads on Facebook or other Meta Platforms websites have also been used to sell drugs in Door County, but it isn’t out of the realm of possibility. Going through the three pages of Drug Treatment Court statistics, from December 1, 2020 to July 15, 2024, https://www.co.door.wi.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_07252024-1711#page=19, it is possible to get an idea of the current problem.
There must be better uses for room tax dollars than buying ads on Meta Platforms.
This article highlights how Wauwatosa is spending $368,123.60 of their room tax dollars on a statue of a troll: https://www.wisconsinrightnow.com/wauwatosa-troll-thomas-dambo/
Once the statue is set up, Wauwatosa will be on the sculptor’s map, https://trollmap.com, and their troll will be part of a children’s book along with other trolls constructed by the same artist.
Marketing to children comes with certain issues. There are some movies where product placements are used to advertise junk food to children. There needs to be some limits. Wauwatosa found a sculptor who makes art that appeals to children instead of what some adults want to foist on children.
Door County is marketed to children with the Coastal Byway Coloring Book: https://www.doorcounty.com/getmedia/c885ff02-a965-442e-bb7a-1cd4fa72b224/dc-coastal-byways-coloring-book.pdf
The barn quilt program is also partly geared to children. Both the coloring book and the barn quilts have educational value, and neither seek to corrupt young minds.
Wauwatosa could have looked for a sculptor willing to work at a lower price at the US Open Chainsaw Sculpture Championship, which is running through August 4th, 2024 in Eau Claire: https://www.visiteauclaire.com/events-and-festivals/annual-events/us-chainsaw-sculpture-championship/
But then the statue might have a lower profile. Wauwatosa is paying not just for the statue, but also for the extras. They may have overpaid, but at least they can be assured that the money isn’t helping a business which contributes to the drug problem.
Posts related to substance abuse:
https://doorcounty.substack.com/t/substance-abuse