Sky Bingo hit with advertising ban

Sky Bingo has been hit with an advertising ban today by the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) after a misleading advertorial was published by an affiliate on DailyTopLinks.com promoting Sky Bingo Casino.

The advertorial from Moojah Ltd was presented like a news story and described how a McDonald’s employee from Aberdeen had won £296,121 on Sky Bingo during her lunch break.

Below the advertorial, however, text stated: “Many of these articles are what is commonly referred to as Advertorials. This is an advertisement not an actual news article.”

However, a complainant challenged whether the ad was clearly identified as marketing communication.

The ASA ruled the ad must not be shown again in its current form

The ASA noted that the advertorial was presented like a news article and read like an editorial piece written by an independent party.

It ruled the ad should not be shown again in its current form because there is nothing identifying the piece as an advert so consumers would mistake the ad for editorial content.

Sky Bingo said in response it had not authorised or created the ad as it was posted by a third-party affiliate and Moojah Ltd had breached contractual obligations by not showing them the ad before publishing it.

Sky have since terminated their relationship with the company and the advertorial was removed on the same day as the complaint.

Despite this, the ASA upheld the complaint and said the ad should not be shown again in its current form.