Paddy Power
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by: Gene Koprowski.
A gambling ad boasting that online betting improved one's sexual prowess is engulfed in controversy in the U.K.
The national media campaign for online casino Paddy Power linked gambling to "seduction, sexual success and enhanced attractiveness", the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled.
 
The ad, published in the Times of London, featured a dwarf in a limousine flanked by two stunning women, smoking a cigar and holding up a champagne glass.
 
A tagline accompanying the ad asked, "Who says you can't make money being short?"
 
The gambling board, in a  related ruling, also criticized a gambling television advertisement campaign that featured "slapstick, and juvenile humour."
 
The Intercasino campaign also featured dwarves, this time undertaking stunts including rolling down hills in dice outfits and sliding down bell-ropes dressed as fruit-machine cherries.
 
The watchdog has banned both campaigns in the UK -- the first since tough new gambling advertising laws were introduced last September.
 
In upholding a complaint against Paddy Power, the ASA critiqued it for linking gambling with "sexual success" and an improved self-image.
 
"We concluded the ad suggested this man's 'shortcoming' had been overcome by the wealth he had acquired through gambling and therefore that the ad implied gambling was a way to improve self-esteem or gain recognition or admiration," the ASA ruling said.
 
Paddy Power defended its ad, saying it contained a parody of a famous scene from the 1980s Hollywood film "Wall Street," starring Michael Douglas as banker Gordon "Greed is Good" Gekko.
 
InterCasino defended its ads as "gentle slapstick humour reminiscent of old-fashioned routines by Charlie Chaplin or Benny Hill."
 
Seems that the gambling ad authorities in the U.K. don't have the same sense of humor as most gamers, or gaming companies. Pity.




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