Betfair has yet another advertisement banned
21st September, 2009
It is not the first time this year that Betfair have had one of their advertisements banned and their latest advert will be the second since August! Betfair’s latest advertisement sees World Series of poker 2007 Europe winner, Annette Obrestad used to promote their poker services.
Accorinding to EGR magazine, the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) decided to ban the advert as they thought that it may appeal and encourage a younger audience. The poker advert featured the winner who was supported by the text “online experience is measured in games, not years. Join the new breed. Annette Obrestad –Annette_15”. The ASA explained that the ad campaign could project the image that the player is still 15 and therefore breaches the ASA regulations that no person under the age of 25 can be used to promote gambling services.
The campaign is the second that the ASA has stopped, with the first being in August which stated that they offered odds that were 40% better than the industry SP and the ASA declared that advert to be misleading to punters.
Betfair argued their case, explaining that they did not feel that this was fair because the method of distribution of the campaign had not been taken into consideration. They explained that the advert would not be put through channels aimed to reach a younger audience and they reassured the ASA that their website is extremely secure at stopping those that are underage from joining in on their services.
It seems that despite their efforts, Betfair ended with an apology for their error and reassured the ASA and public that such a mistake would not happen again and the marketing department have been advised not to use Annette again in their campaigns.
For more information visit EGR magazine.
By Gina
