A Paddy Power TV ad promising that even “riff raff” could take part in a Cheltenham betting promotion has been banned.
The tongue-in-cheek ad, fronted by Fonejacker star Kayvan Novak, featured the actor telling a caller to Paddy Power’s “complaints line” that its betting offer is available to “everyone – even riff raff”.
The Advertising Standards Authority received almost a dozen complaints that the ad was misleading as the Cheltenham betting offer was not open to all customers.
Paddy Power admitted that the particular offer was not available to all customers.
The company said it blocked about 0.5% of its customer base from participating if they had been identified as potentially “abusing the offer or using the offer to guarantee profits regardless of the outcome”.
The ASA’s investigation found that the majority of those that complained about the claim in the TV ad were already aware that Paddy Power had restricted their accounts.
However, the ad watchdog said that in a case where it was emphatically stated that the betting promotion was open to everyone it was not enough to have on-screen text stating “T&Cs apply”.
“Because we considered that consumers, including those who were subject to account restrictions, would infer from the ad that everyone could take up the promotion, when that was not the case, we concluded it was misleading,” said the ASA.
“We told Paddy Power not to state or imply that a promotion was open to everyone if that was not the case.”
