Paddy Power Ad Ban For Gambling Taking Priority
15 June 2022
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An advert for wagering company Paddy Power has been prohibited for motivating repeated gambling, by revealing it taking concern over family.
The advert includes a female asking her sweetheart "Do you think I'll end up appearing like my mum?".
He, distracted by a gaming app, responds "I hope so".
The business said it accepted the decision from the marketing regulator and would consider the assistance it had actually been offered.
Displayed in March 2022 throughout TV and online, the advertisement showed the man being in a living room next to his sweetheart, whilst using his phone to play among the company's wagering games.
His girlfriend's mother brings the couple a drink, after which his girlfriend positions the concern to which the male reacts without believing, while continuing to look at his phone. Following his girlfriend's incredulous gaze, the male returns, ashamed, to playing the wagering video game.
The advert's narrator then states: "So no matter how severely you pack it up, you'll always get another opportunity with Paddy Power video games".
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The ad received 3 complaints from viewers, all of which were promoted. One plaintiff said the ad revealed the guy was so preoccupied with betting it had led him to make an "improper remark".
The UK's marketing guard dog, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said the advertisement "encouraged recurring gambling" since it "depicted gaming as taking top priority in life, over family".
A Paddy Power representative told the BBC the company was "committed to accountable practice and it is constantly our intention to comply with the Advertising Codes. We accept the choice of the ASA and will consider its wider assistance moving forwards".
The complainants to the ASA believed that the guy was portrayed as letting betting take concern over his domesticity and was "socially irresponsible".
Paddy Power safeguarded itself to the ASA, arguing that the ad suggested a "dedication to household life", because it portrayed the scene of a traditional household setting, with the man joining his girlfriend's parents for Sunday lunch, and was intended to be "light-hearted".
The ASA told Paddy Power that its adverts could not represent betting as "taking top priority in life, or depict, condone or encourage betting behaviour that was socially careless", and that the adverts could no longer be shown in their current type.
Clearcast, the business responsible for clearing adverts before broadcast in the UK, said that it accepted the ASA judgment, and will take the assistance in to factor to consider when clearing future gaming advertisements.
The ruling follows a wider campaign by the ASA to secure down on socially reckless advertising and apply harder rules for betting advertising in particular.