Sportsbet has "no plans" to pull ad featuring drug cheat Ben Johnson
Aussie brand’s latest ad featuring the disgraced sprinter labelled “utterly inappropriate” by Australia's sports minister
Sportsbet has rejected calls to pull its latest TV advert, which features Olympic drug cheat Ben Johnson promoting the Paddy Power Betfair operator’s new “juiced up” app.
The ad, which debuted over the weekend, features lines like: “Everyone’s on it and it’s an unfair advantage,” and “Sportsbet’s new jacked up, feature-injected Android App, puts the “roid” in Android”.
The ad prompted an immediate backlash in Australia, with politicians and anti-doping agencies among those filing complaints.
Australian Sports Minister Greg Hunt described it as “utterly inappropriate”, while Senator Nick Xenophon said: “It is just wrong on so many levels, glorifying a drug cheat, tying it in with gambling and promoting it to kids in a light-hearted way.”
Xenophon lodged complaints with the Independent Gambling Authority and the Advertising Standards Authority, while the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority also lodged an official complaint.
However, Sportsbet said it had no plans to stop the campaign, which it said has been approved and rated by advertising watchdog Commercials Advice.
A Sportsbet spokesperson said the firm made no apologies for “injecting some humour into advertising”, adding: “Sportsbet has no plans to pull the adverts from air – we’ve received overwhelmingly positive support from the public and they see it for what it is, a tongue-in-cheek joke.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=78&v=QwD22vX9KSY
The ad was put together in partnership with marketing agency BMF, whose ECD Cam Blackley, said: “There are times when you concoct an idea that makes you laugh so much you think ‘nup, we’re never going to get that made’. Well Sportsbet booked our tickets to Romania and here we are. And to work with Ben Johnson, my boyhood hero, that’s the icing.”
Sportsbet said more controversial endorsers would be joining the campaign in the coming weeks.
The cheeky tone of the campaign bears all the hallmarks of a traditional Paddy Power ad, with the firm last year responsible for two of the UK’s 10 most complained-about ads.