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.

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