Paddy Power Advertisement Ban For Gambling Taking Priority
15 June 2022
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An advert for wagering company Paddy Power has been banned for motivating repetitive betting, by revealing it taking concern over family.
The advert features 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 stated it accepted the decision from the advertising regulator and would think about the guidance it had actually been provided.
Shown in March 2022 throughout TV and online, the ad revealed the guy being in a living room beside his girlfriend, whilst using his phone to play among the firm's betting video games.
His sweetheart's mother brings the couple a drink, after which his girlfriend poses the concern to which the male reacts without thinking, while continuing to stare at his phone. Following his sweetheart's incredulous stare, the guy returns, embarrassed, to playing the betting game.
The advert's narrator then mentions: "So no matter how terribly you stuff it up, you'll constantly get another possibility with Paddy Power games".
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The advertisement received three 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 "inappropriate remark".
The UK's advertising watchdog, the Authority (ASA) stated the ad "encouraged repeated betting" because it "represented gaming as taking priority in life, over household".
A Paddy Power spokesperson told the BBC the firm was "committed to accountable practice and it is always our intention to comply with 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 depicted as letting gaming take priority over his domesticity and was "socially careless".
Paddy Power defended itself to the ASA, arguing that the ad suggested a "dedication to household life", considering that it represented the scene of a conventional family 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 could not portray betting as "taking top priority in life, or depict, condone or encourage betting behaviour that was socially careless", which the adverts could no longer be revealed in their present kind.
Clearcast, the company responsible for clearing adverts before broadcast in the UK, stated that it accepted the ASA judgment, and will take the guidance in to factor to consider when clearing future gaming advertisements.
The ruling follows a broader campaign by the ASA to secure down on socially careless advertising and apply tougher rules for betting advertising in particular.