This story is sponsored by Paddy Power
Irish bookmaker Paddy Power has said it is ‘surprised and disappointed’ that its controversial transgender ad has been banned by UK advertising regulator the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).
The Ladies’ Day ad for Paddy Power’s Cheltenham Festival campaign, which invited viewers to decide whether the race-goers featured were men or women, caused uproar when it aired in England recently, with complainants to the ASA labelling it ‘degrading’, ‘hateful’ and ‘transphobic’.
Although pre-approved by independent UK advertising vetting body Clearcast, the ad was soon called up for investigation by the ASA after receiving more than 470 complaints and has now been suspended by Clearcast and television broadcasters.
Paddy Power commented in a statement: “Given the attention and diligence we demonstrated throughout the development of this commercial, we are very disappointed by today’s decision.
“Finally it is worth pointing out that the commercial, which went live on YouTube less than one week ago, has almost 250,000 views with more ‘likes’ than ‘dislikes’.”
Paddy Power commented that the ad had the full support of the UK transgender group, The Beaumont Society, who gave feedback on the script and declared “nothing untoward with the advert concept”.
However, despite initially approving the ad in light of the involvement of The Beaumont Society, Clearcast confirmed: “It appears that the ad has caused offence and, in consultation with broadcasters, it has been decided that the ad should no longer run on their TV or VoD services in its current format. We regret offence that may have been caused.”
Paddy Power’s more recent ad, Chav Tranquiliser, which features people being shot with tranquiliser darts in an attempt to remove the ‘chavs’ from the Cheltenham Festival, has also been banned after just four days on TV.
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