Paddy Power Advertisement Ban For Gambling Taking Priority

15 June 2022
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An advert for betting company Paddy Power has been banned for encouraging repetitive betting, by revealing it taking concern over family.


The advert includes a female asking her partner "Do you believe I'll wind up looking like my mum?".


He, distracted by a gaming app, replies "I hope so".


The business stated it accepted the choice from the marketing regulator and would think about the guidance it had been provided.


Displayed in March 2022 throughout TV and online, the advertisement revealed the man sitting in a living-room beside his girlfriend, whilst using his phone to play among the firm's wagering games.


His brings the couple a beverage, after which his sweetheart positions the concern to which the guy reacts without believing, while continuing to gaze at his phone. Following his sweetheart's incredulous look, the male returns, ashamed, to playing the betting game.


The advert's narrator then specifies: "So no matter how terribly you stuff it up, you'll constantly get another opportunity with Paddy Power games".


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The ad got three grievances from viewers, all of which were maintained. One plaintiff said the ad showed the guy was so preoccupied with gambling it had led him to make an "unsuitable remark".


The UK's advertising guard dog, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said the ad "motivated repeated gambling" due to the fact that it "portrayed gaming as taking priority in life, over household".


A Paddy Power representative told the BBC the firm was "devoted to accountable practice and it is constantly our objective to adhere to the Advertising Codes. We accept the decision of the ASA and will consider its wider assistance moving forwards".


The complainants to the ASA thought that the man was depicted as letting gambling take priority over his household life and was "socially irresponsible".


Paddy Power defended itself to the ASA, arguing that the ad suggested a "dedication to household life", considering that it portrayed the scene of a traditional household setting, with the male joining his girlfriend's moms and dads for Sunday lunch, and was meant to be "light-hearted".


The ASA told Paddy Power that its adverts might not portray betting as "taking concern in life, or depict, condone or encourage gambling behaviour that was socially reckless", which the adverts might no longer be revealed in their current kind.


Clearcast, the business accountable for clearing adverts before broadcast in the UK, stated that it accepted the ASA judgment, and will take the assistance in to factor to consider when clearing future gaming ads.


The judgment follows a wider project by the ASA to clamp down on socially irresponsible advertising and apply harder guidelines for gambling marketing in particular.