Paddy Power Ad Ban For Gambling Taking Priority

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


The advert features a lady asking her boyfriend "Do you believe I'll wind up looking like my mum?".


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


The company said it accepted the decision from the marketing regulator and would consider the assistance it had been given.


Shown in March 2022 across TV and online, the ad showed the man being in a living space beside his girlfriend, whilst using his phone to play one of the firm's betting video games.


His girlfriend's mother brings the couple a beverage, after which his girlfriend presents the concern to which the guy reacts without believing, while continuing to stare at his phone. Following his girlfriend's incredulous gaze, the man returns, embarrassed, to playing the wagering game.


The advert's narrator then specifies: "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 3 problems from viewers, all of which were promoted. One complainant said the ad revealed the man 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 "encouraged repeated gaming" due to the fact that it "represented gaming 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 always our objective to comply with the Advertising Codes. We accept the decision of the ASA and will consider its broader assistance moving forwards".


The complainants to the ASA thought that the guy was represented as letting gaming take top priority over his family life and was "socially careless".


Paddy Power protected itself to the ASA, arguing that the advertisement implied a "commitment to family life", given that it represented the scene of a conventional household setting, with the male joining his sweetheart's moms and dads for Sunday lunch, and was meant to be "light-hearted".


The ASA informed Paddy Power that its adverts could not depict betting as "taking top priority in life, or depict, condone or encourage betting behaviour that was socially careless", and that the adverts could no longer be displayed in their present type.


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 ads.


The ruling follows a wider campaign by the ASA to secure down on socially reckless marketing and use tougher guidelines for betting advertising in particular.