Paddy Power Ad Ban For Gambling Taking Priority

15 June 2022
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An advert for betting firm Paddy Power has actually been banned for encouraging recurring gaming, by showing it taking top priority over household.


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


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


The company said it accepted the decision from the marketing regulator and would consider the guidance it had actually been provided.


Shown in March 2022 throughout TV and online, the advertisement showed the man sitting in a living room next to his sweetheart, whilst using his phone to play one of the company's wagering games.


His girlfriend's mother brings the couple a drink, after which his girlfriend postures the concern to which the male reacts without believing, while continuing to look at his phone. Following his sweetheart's incredulous stare, the man returns, ashamed, to playing the wagering game.


The advert's narrator then mentions: "So no matter how severely you pack it up, you'll always get another opportunity with Paddy Power games".


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The ad received three complaints from audiences, all of which were promoted. One plaintiff said the ad revealed the man was so preoccupied with gambling it had actually led him to make an "inappropriate remark".


The UK's marketing guard dog, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said the ad "encouraged repeated gambling" because it "portrayed gambling as taking priority in life, over household".


A Paddy Power spokesperson informed the BBC the company was "committed to accountable practice and it is always our objective to abide by 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 man was represented as letting gambling take concern over his family life and was "socially irresponsible".


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


The ASA told Paddy Power that its adverts might not depict betting as "taking top priority in life, or depict, excuse or motivate betting behaviour that was socially careless", which the adverts might no longer be shown in their current kind.


Clearcast, the business 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 gambling advertisements.


The ruling follows a larger project by the ASA to clamp down on socially careless advertising and use harder rules for betting advertising in particular.