Paddy Power Ordered To Pull Pistorious Ad by ASA
Earlier this month Paddy Power was forced to take down an advertisement. This order came from the United Kingdom Advertising Standards Authority, Paddy Power was forced to remove this advertisement due to the ad revolving around the Oscar Pistorious trail.
The ruling to force Paddy Power to remove them ad came into effect after the ASA received 5,200 complaints about the online advertisement. In the advertisement Paddy Power headlines that if Oscar Pistorious walks free players will get their money back. The print advertisement offered players a unique promotion that allowed for them to bet on Oscar Pistorious, players had to wager if this man would walk free or be sent to prison. Paddy Power planned to return all losing bets to players if he was found not guilty.
The Advertising Standards Authority released a statement on their website that read, “We consider this advertisement to be offensive to the general public. Paddy Power wishes to have their players wager on a trail that should not be so highly publicized. If we allow for this advertisement campaign to continue it will result in more complaints and potentially threats against the online gambling operators. We also worry that an advertisement such as this one will sully the good name that our advertising industry has been able to uphold.”
The ad was panned out for being distasteful, after all of the complaints the advertisement has now been removed by Paddy Power. Paddy Power didn’t make an official comment