Paddy Power Advertisement Ban For Gambling Taking Priority
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15 June 2022
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An advert for wagering company Paddy Power has actually been banned for encouraging repeated betting, by showing it taking top priority over .
The advert includes a female asking her partner "Do you believe I'll end up looking like my mum?".
He, sidetracked by a gaming app, replies "I hope so".
The business said it accepted the decision from the marketing regulator and would think about the assistance it had been provided.
Shown in March 2022 throughout TV and online, the ad revealed the man sitting in a living space beside his girlfriend, whilst using his phone to play among the company's wagering video games.
His girlfriend's mother brings the couple a beverage, after which his sweetheart presents the question to which the guy responds without thinking, while continuing to stare at his phone. Following his sweetheart's incredulous look, the male returns, embarrassed, to playing the wagering video game.
The advert's narrator then specifies: "So no matter how terribly you stuff it up, you'll always get another opportunity with Paddy Power games".
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The advertisement received 3 complaints from viewers, all of which were maintained. One plaintiff said the ad revealed the guy was so preoccupied with gambling it had actually led him to make an "inappropriate remark".
The UK's advertising guard dog, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) stated the advertisement "encouraged repeated gambling" due to the fact that it "represented gaming as taking priority in life, over household".
A Paddy Power spokesperson told the BBC the company was "committed to accountable practice and it is constantly our intention to abide by the Advertising Codes. We accept the choice of the ASA and will consider its more comprehensive guidance moving forwards".
The plaintiffs to the ASA thought that the man was represented as letting gambling take priority over his domesticity and was "socially reckless".
Paddy Power protected itself to the ASA, arguing that the advertisement indicated a "commitment to family life", considering that it portrayed the scene of a traditional household setting, with the man joining his girlfriend's parents for Sunday lunch, and was meant to be "light-hearted".
The ASA told Paddy Power that its adverts might not portray betting as "taking top priority in life, or depict, condone or motivate betting behaviour that was socially reckless", and that the adverts might no longer be shown in their present form.
Clearcast, the business accountable for clearing adverts before broadcast in the UK, said that it accepted the ASA ruling, and will take the guidance in to factor to consider when clearing future gambling advertisements.
The judgment follows a larger campaign by the ASA to secure down on socially irresponsible marketing and apply harder rules for gambling marketing in particular.