Paddy Power Advertisement Ban For Gambling Taking Priority
15 June 2022
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An advert for betting company Paddy Power has been prohibited for encouraging repeated betting, by showing it taking priority over family.
The advert includes a female asking her sweetheart "Do you think I'll wind up looking like my mum?".
He, sidetracked by a betting app, responds "I hope so".
The business said it accepted the decision from the marketing regulator and would think about the guidance it had been given.
Displayed in March 2022 throughout TV and online, the ad showed the male sitting in a living room beside his girlfriend, whilst using his phone to play among the firm's wagering video games.
His sweetheart's mother brings the couple a beverage, after which his girlfriend poses the question to which the man responds without believing, while continuing to gaze at his phone. Following his stare, the guy returns, embarrassed, to playing the betting video game.
The advert's narrator then mentions: "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 grievances from audiences, all of which were upheld. One complainant stated the ad revealed the man was so preoccupied with betting it had actually led him to make an "unsuitable remark".
The UK's advertising guard dog, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said the ad "motivated repetitive gambling" due to the fact that it "represented gambling as taking priority in life, over family".
A Paddy Power spokesperson informed the BBC the company was "dedicated to accountable practice and it is constantly our intent to adhere to the Advertising Codes. We accept the decision of the ASA and will consider its broader assistance moving forwards".
The complainants to the ASA thought that the male was represented as letting gaming take top priority over his domesticity and was "socially reckless".
Paddy Power protected itself to the ASA, arguing that the ad indicated a "dedication to domesticity", considering that it portrayed the scene of a traditional household setting, with the guy joining his girlfriend's moms and dads for Sunday lunch, and was planned to be "light-hearted".
The ASA informed Paddy Power that its adverts could not portray gambling as "taking concern in life, or represent, condone or encourage betting behaviour that was socially careless", which the adverts could no longer be displayed in their current form.
Clearcast, the company responsible for clearing adverts before broadcast in the UK, stated that it accepted the ASA ruling, and will take the guidance in to consideration when clearing future betting ads.
The judgment follows a larger campaign by the ASA to secure down on socially careless advertising and use tougher rules for gambling advertising in specific.