SEXY VC POKER AD CRITICISED

1 June 2007

ASA says sexual association with gambling is irresponsible

The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ruled in favour of a complaint that a VC Poker.com advertising campaign was irresponsible in associating sex and gambling, and has ordered a halt to the public presentation of the material.

The campaign featured a scantily clad woman with the strapline: "You love sex. She loves sex. You love money. She loves money. You have money. She loves you."

Victor Chandler said that the advert had been used to promote an online poker tournament held in January of 2007 and had since been discontinued, and that it had provided copies of other gambling ads for similar tournaments that they believed showed aspirational messages, commonly used by the gambling industry to promote tournaments.

It also claimed that the visual of the woman and the corresponding text was only used to gain attention and explained that it had acted responsibly by ensuring the poster was placed in the gentlemen's toilets of a licensed premises to limit the target audience to men older than 18.

Agreeing that the advert was irresponsible, the ASA said in its judgement that, despite Victor Chandler's claim that the ads had merely sought to suggest that "everyone loves a winner" the material implied that gambling would improve players' sex lives.

The watchdog also said the line "see how much you have in common," reinforced the notion that men "...even if socially inept, could obtain sexual success".

Advertising rules in the UK apparently prohibit the association of gambling with sexual prowess.

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