ASA rejects Bingo Friendzy Facebook ad complaints
Authority rules that 18+ age restriction on distribution means advert is not in danger of appealing to children.
Complaints against Gamesys’ Facebook advert for its Bingo Friendzy real-money game have not been upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).
The two complainants suggested that a Facebook page entitled “Bingo Friendzy … World’s First Real Cash Games on Facebook” could be of particular appeal to children because of the use of “furry cartoon characters”, according to the ASA ruling.
The ASA has not upheld the complaints because of the 18+ age-restricted access to the Bingo Friendzy game enforced by Gamesys subsidiary Profitable Play (PP).
The advertising watchdog said in its ruling: “The ASA acknowledged the complainants’ concern that the ad was particularly likely to appeal to children and we considered that the imagery used in the ad meant that that was likely to be the case, if children were exposed to it. However, we noted the ad was accessed only via the advertiser’s Facebook page, and that access to that page was age-restricted to website users who were 18 or over. We considered that PP had taken reasonable steps to prevent those who were under 18 from viewing the ad and concluded that it did not breach the Code.”
In August, Gamesys became the first and so far only company to be permitted by Facebook to host a real-money game on the social networking platform, a private commercial venture COO Lee Fenton exclusively told eGR was a “huge opportunity”.
Fabulous Bingo, one of Gamesys’ bingo white-labels, saw a television advertisement banned by the ASA earlier this year because it “directly linked the online bingo game with enhanced attractiveness”.