Strange but true: Ladbrokes, a prominent UK betting company, is in trouble because it ran two television ads linking gambling to reckless behavior. From the Guardian:
The betting company ran two TV ads, described as "pastiches of documentary-style filming", telling the story of two adrenaline junkies who came to a sticky end after taking one risk too many.
One of the ads featured a fictional eyepatch-wearing character called Willem Snyman, described as a "mentor and oceanic guru", who talked about the demise of a shark-diving student.
Snyman explained that the student's headstrong attitude and extreme appetite for risk-taking led him to tie raw bacon and sausages to his wetsuit and dive in shark infested waters in a seal costume.
"All we could bury was his flipper," explained Snyman.
The other ad was narrated by the fictional J "Snake Eyes" Kowalski, a pilot and skydiving pioneer, talking about the death of his student Ted.
Ted was said to have died after experimenting with smaller and smaller parachutes, until one day he jumped using just an empty 30g potato chip packet.
Both ads ended with the line "If only he'd seen ladbrokescasino.com it would have quenched his thrill buds."
The Advertising Standards Authority received one complaint that the TV ads portrayed gambling in a context of toughness and linked it to risk-taking and reckless behaviour.
In its defence, Ladbrokes said that the humour was "deliberately exaggerated and ridiculous" and that the cautionary nature of the of the stories "actively encouraged caution and moderation over extreme behaviour and recklessness".
Ladbrokes TV ads banned for linking gambling to reckless behaviour | Media | guardian.co.uk.
It’s wonderful that one complaint can stop an ad campaign in its tracks. Or that it’s taboo to air a comedic portrayal of gambling as a surrogate for reckless behavior. Shouldn’t Ladbrokes be applauded for their candor? The subtext of the ads is that if you seek too much risk, you’ll end up regretting it. It doesn’t really make me want to go out and get some action down on the Eagles this weekend.