Paddy Power Advertisement Ban For Gambling Taking Priority
15 June 2022
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An advert for wagering firm Paddy Power has actually been prohibited for encouraging recurring betting, by showing it taking priority over family.
The advert features a female asking her boyfriend "Do you think I'll end up appearing like my mum?".
He, sidetracked by a gambling app, replies "I hope so".
The company said it accepted the decision from the marketing regulator and would think about the assistance it had been given.
Shown in March 2022 across TV and online, the advertisement revealed the man being in a living space beside his girlfriend, whilst using his phone to play among the company's betting video games.
His girlfriend's mom brings the couple a beverage, after which his girlfriend positions the question to which the man responds without thinking, while continuing to gaze at his phone. Following his girlfriend's incredulous stare, the man returns, embarrassed, to playing the wagering video game.
The advert's narrator then mentions: "So no matter how severely you stuff it up, you'll constantly get another chance with Paddy Power video games".
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The advertisement received three problems from viewers, all of which were maintained. One plaintiff stated the ad showed the guy was so preoccupied with betting it had led him to make an "inappropriate remark".
The UK's marketing guard dog, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said the advertisement "encouraged recurring gambling" because it "depicted betting as taking priority in life, over family".
A Paddy Power spokesperson told the BBC the company was "committed to accountable practice and it is always our intent to abide by 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 depicted as letting gaming take concern over his family life and was "socially reckless".
Paddy Power safeguarded itself to the ASA, arguing that the advertisement implied a "commitment to domesticity", since it portrayed the scene of a standard family setting, with the male joining his girlfriend's parents for Sunday lunch, and was planned to be "light-hearted".
The ASA informed Paddy Power that its adverts could not represent gambling as "taking top priority in life, or depict, condone or encourage gambling behaviour that was socially reckless", and that the adverts might no longer be shown in their present form.
Clearcast, the company responsible for before broadcast in the UK, said that it accepted the ASA judgment, and will take the assistance in to consideration when clearing future betting advertisements.
The ruling follows a wider campaign by the ASA to secure down on socially irresponsible marketing and apply tougher guidelines for betting advertising in specific.