Two poster adverts for Ladbrokes have been banned on the grounds that they "condoned an irresponsible attitude towards gambling".
One showed a character nicknamed Mr Brightside with the slogan: "When you win it's skill - when you lose it's bad luck." The other read: "Once is luck - twice is talent."
There were 98 complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) about the bookmaker's wider multi-media campaign, which featured five friends and carried the tagline:
"They are the dreamers, the glory-seekers, the back-page philosophers, the Wednesday night warriors. They are the have-a-go heroes of Saturday afternoon. They are the betting men, and this is the Ladbrokes Life."
Ladbrokes said it believed most consumers, viewing the ads as a whole, would recognise their dryly humorous tone and would not interpret them as encouraging an irresponsible attitude towards gambling.
The ASA agreed that most people would not interpret the ads to imply that gambling would confer admiration or enhance personal qualities.
But it upheld the specific complaints about the two posters because, in its view, they lacked contain the same degree of context as the overall campaign.
It therefore decided that the two posters broke the committee of advertising practice rules and must not appear again in their current form.
Sources: PA Media Lawyer/ASA
