A.s.a. Censure For Sporting Index Advert
By Brian Cullingworth, Last updated Aug 8, 2014
Religiously insensitive use of Rio's Christ the Redeemer icon criticised
The monumental statue of Christ the Redeemer that has become synonymous with the city of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil and the recent World Cup football in that country, was in the news again this week when the UK Advertising Standards Authority slammed betting company Sporting Index on its use of a particularly insensitive advertisement.
During the now concluded World Cup, Sporting Index flighted a print ad in major Brit publications that showed a grinning, sun-glasses bedecked statue of Christ with a bottle of wine in one hand and a scantily clad bikini babe in the other, a presentation that triggered over 20 complaints on religious grounds.
SI argued that Christ the Redeemer has been widely used commercially in promoting Brazil and Rio, and that this had widened its acceptability beyond the religious, but the ASA didn't buy it, and ordered – rather redundantly – that it was not to be used again, and that SI should be wary of associating gambling with sex and alcohol in the future.
Online Casino News Courtesy of Infopowa
Infopowa news was a staple of Casinomeister’s news from 2000 until 2019. Brian Cullingworth was the main writer, contributor, and was one of the most knowledgeable persons I have ever known involved in the online casino industry.
We first met in January 2001 at the ICE in London where I observed him going booth to booth interviewing online casino, software, and licensing jurisdiction representatives. Brian was also heavily involved with our forum as “Jetset“, he was involved as an informal consultant to eCOGRA, the OPA, and was a player advocate who assisted countless aggrieved players with his connections to industry folks. He also published “Casino Cautions” via Infopowa news for quite a number of years. These can be found in our news archives.
His passing in February 2019 was a dark day for us. He will be forever missed.
Top 5 casinos
