Netplay ad banned for linking social success to gambling
Supercasino ad banned after two complaints upheld by ASA.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned a TV advertisement for Netplay TV’s Supercasino.com brand, describing the ad having “linked gambling with recognition, admiration and enhanced attractiveness,” and being in breach of the Advertising Standards Code.
The ad showed an individual walking down a street with a group of friends, glancing at a female acquaintance, then entering an exclusive club and exchanging looks with a number of other women as he sat at a roulette table.
It also featured a voiceover stating: “Join our live spinners tonight and we’ll give you £10 free. Supercasino.com. Feel it for real,” and a soundtrack including the lyrics: “Everybody wanna be famous … Reaching up for the stars, who could blame us … Las Vegas, VIP status … Everybody wanna be someone special.”
This prompted two complaints to the ASA, one from a member of the public, and one from Gambling Reform & Society Perception Group (GRASP), a group set up in 2010 to highlight the social consequences of problem gambling, highlighting concerns over whether the ad was irresponsible and glamorised gambling.
Netplay responded, saying the advert was designed to be upbeat, showing people coming together to gamble in a move to promote the past time as a social, rather than solitary activity. This was backed up by Clearcast, which discussed and approved the ad at pre-production stage, and after the final version had been submitted.
While the ASA accepted that the ad was designed to show gambling as a social activity, it upheld the complaints, based on the fact that the main character seemed to garner admiration from his peers, and become more attractive to females as a result of his involvement in gambling, and the song lyrics were seen to support the idea that gambling was being linked to success and glamour.
In its verdict, the ASA said: “We considered that the references to fame, being special and VIP status in the soundtrack, combined with the admiring way in which the main character was treated by the other characters, linked gambling with recognition, admiration and enhanced attractiveness, and we therefore concluded that the ad breached the Code.”