Advertisment
A sponsored advertisement on YouTube for sports betting casino at Tony Bet depicted a woman holding a baby. The advertisement included text that stated: ‘It’s hard to pay my rent and take care of my babies.’
The woman was depicted later in the video with her thumb up and there was text that stated: ‘But I made $8,500 last month.’
A footnote included a responsibility message together with terms and conditions on the promoted offer.
Complaint
Two complainants objected to the advertisement.
One considered that the advertisement had depicted gambling as financially beneficial.
The second complainant considered that the advertisement createed the dangerous impression that gambling could resolve personal or financial difficulties, had targeted vulnerable individuals and perpetuated dangerous stereotypes, potentially encouraging harmful gambling behaviours. They said that depicting gambling as a means to escape or solve personal challenges could lead to an increase in gambling-related harm, especially among viewers who may already be facing financial or emotional struggles.’
Response
The advertiser stated that after reviewing the complaints, they had taken immediate action and had urgently discontinued non-compliant advertisements with immediate effect.
They underlined that they were committed to being compliant with industry advertising standards and applicable regulatory requirements. They said that they had internal advertising guidance published on Confluence page (internal informational page) where they took into account provisions of the ASA code and provided overall compliance guidance to all internal teams responsible for marketing activity preparation and management. In addition to this, as a second line of defence, they said that all marketing campaigns were subject to compliance review and approval through internal ticketing system .
The advertisers stated that the advertisement was handled by a mobile affiliation partner, who was provided with their internal marketing compliance guidelines and staff training had taken place; however the partner expanded their team and due to human error, one of the new employees did not check the created advertising templates against the guidelines before uploading them for distribution. They said that the partner did not warn them that the advertising material would be launched for YouTube and due to high workload the advertiser’s Marketing team missed the material in question and campaign managers launched the material automatically, assuming it had passed the multiple checks.
They said that it was unfortunate that due to human error the advertising material was not submitted for compliance review and marketing guidance was not followed. They have raised compliance concerns to the management of the Marketing teams and the importance in following marketing compliance guidelines available. They said that an additional training session had been organised with relevant stakeholders as a matter of reminder in order to eliminate human errors in the future. Due to a gross violation of the rules, their Marketing department had reviewed their Material approval process and increased the approval steps from 2 to 5 and their continuation of the partnership with the affiliate would also be reviewed.
The advertisers underlined that they were fully committed to the compliance with respective rules and regulations in the territory of Ireland and the current advertisement launch was not a deliberate action of the company but, a mistake of a 3rd party employee.
Conclusion
Complaint Upheld
The Complaints Council considered the detail of the complaint and the advertisers response.
The Council noted the requirements of the Code that marketing communications for gambling should not portray, condone or encourage gambling behaviour that is socially irresponsible or could lead to financial, social or emotional harm (S. 10.12a), portray gambling as indispensable or as taking priority in life (S. 10.12d) or suggest that solitary gambling is preferable to social gambling (S. 10.12j).
The Council considered that the advertisement had depicted gambling in a positive manner. They considered the statement ‘I made $8,500 last month’ had strongly indicated that gambling would be a source of income, and encouraging such a belief could lead to financial harm.
In the circumstances, the Council considered that the advertising was in breach of Sections 3.3, 10.12 (a), 10.12 (b), 10.12 (c), 10.12 (j) and 10.12 (k) of the Code.
Action Required
The advertisement must not reappear in its current form.
