Paddy Power Ad Ban For Gambling Taking Priority

15 June 2022
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An advert for wagering firm Paddy Power has been banned for encouraging repeated gaming, by revealing it taking concern over household.


The advert includes a woman asking her sweetheart "Do you think I'll end up looking like my mum?".


He, sidetracked by a betting app, replies "I hope so".


The business stated it accepted the decision from the advertising regulator and would consider the guidance it had actually been offered.


Displayed in March 2022 across TV and online, the ad revealed the male being in a living room beside his sweetheart, whilst utilizing his phone to play among the company's betting games.


His sweetheart's mom brings the couple a beverage, after which his girlfriend poses the question to which the man reacts without believing, while continuing to stare at his phone. Following his girlfriend's incredulous look, the male returns, ashamed, to playing the betting game.


The advert's storyteller then states: "So no matter how terribly you stuff it up, you'll always get another chance with Paddy Power video games".


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The advertisement received 3 from viewers, all of which were supported. One complainant stated the ad revealed the man was so preoccupied with gambling it had led him to make an "unsuitable remark".


The UK's marketing guard dog, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) stated the advertisement "motivated repeated gaming" because it "depicted betting as taking top priority in life, over family".


A Paddy Power representative told the BBC the firm was "committed to responsible practice and it is constantly our intention to abide by the Advertising Codes. We accept the decision 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 top priority over his domesticity and was "socially irresponsible".


Paddy Power protected itself to the ASA, arguing that the advertisement indicated a "commitment to family life", considering that it represented the scene of a standard family setting, with the man joining his sweetheart's parents 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 portray, condone or motivate betting behaviour that was socially reckless", and that the adverts could no longer be shown in their present form.


Clearcast, the business responsible for clearing adverts before broadcast in the UK, said that it accepted the ASA ruling, and will take the assistance in to consideration when clearing future betting ads.


The judgment follows a broader campaign by the ASA to clamp down on socially careless advertising and apply tougher rules for betting marketing in specific.