Paddy Power Advertisement Ban For Gambling Taking Priority
15 June 2022
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An advert for wagering firm Paddy Power has been prohibited for encouraging repeated betting, by showing it taking priority over family.
The advert includes a lady 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 company said it accepted the choice from the marketing regulator and would think about the guidance it had actually been given.
Shown in March 2022 across TV and online, the the guy being in a living room beside his sweetheart, whilst utilizing his phone to play among the firm's betting video games.
His girlfriend's mom brings the couple a beverage, after which his sweetheart poses the question to which the male responds without believing, while continuing to stare at his phone. Following his girlfriend's incredulous stare, the guy returns, embarrassed, to playing the wagering game.
The advert's narrator then mentions: "So no matter how badly you stuff it up, you'll constantly get another opportunity with Paddy Power games".
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The ad got 3 complaints from audiences, all of which were upheld. One complainant stated the ad revealed the male was so preoccupied with betting it had actually led him to make an "inappropriate remark".
The UK's advertising guard dog, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) stated the ad "motivated repetitive betting" since it "represented betting as taking concern in life, over household".
A Paddy Power spokesperson told the BBC the company was "dedicated to responsible practice and it is constantly our intent to comply with the Advertising Codes. We accept the decision of the ASA and will consider its wider assistance moving forwards".
The plaintiffs to the ASA thought that the man was portrayed as letting gaming take priority over his household life and was "socially careless".
Paddy Power defended itself to the ASA, arguing that the ad implied a "dedication to domesticity", given that it portrayed the scene of a standard household setting, with the man joining his sweetheart's moms and dads for Sunday lunch, and was intended to be "light-hearted".
The ASA told Paddy Power that its adverts could not represent gambling as "taking top priority in life, or represent, excuse or encourage gambling behaviour that was socially reckless", and that the adverts might no longer be displayed in their current kind.
Clearcast, the company 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 betting ads.
The judgment follows a broader project by the ASA to clamp down on socially careless advertising and apply tougher guidelines for gambling advertising in specific.