After a massive amount of complaints about Paddy Power’s Oscar Pistorius campaign, where bettors could bet on the outcome of his pending trial for killing his girlfriend, UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has forced the betting giant to remove the campaign. Paddy Power ran a campaign where they showed the Oscar statue with the text “It’s Oscar Time – Money Back if he Walks”.
The campaign was made to create a buzz around the Oscar ceremony which was about to take place, as well as for the trial. However it did not work according to plan and ASA received well over 5,000 complaints from persons who found the ad to be “trivialising the issues surrounding a murder trial, the death of a woman and disability.”
Paddy Power has agreed to remove the advertisement, following the rules of ASA. Patrick Kennedy, CEO of Paddy Power, said however that it was a good idea running the campaign as it has been the most talked about campaign of the year. “This is not about the trial, and not about the murder,” Kennedy said.