Celebs Banned from UK Ads

It’s looking more and more likely that Gambling Operators will be prohibited from featuring celebrities, sports stars and social media influencers in their various forms of advertisement. This, the result of a new review launched by the Committee of Advertising Practice, the body responsible for ruling the UK compliance for advertising.

In line with legal compliance, existing rules prohibit ads that are likely to appeal more to minors than to adults, but these new rules would go further and ban all ads that are judged to appeal to under-18s. This would include a ban on the use of any personalities who appeal to minors. The CAP has said that change would have a major impact on adverts that use sportspeople and celebrities, including reality TV stars and social media influencers. The decision would depend on how popular a celebrity or influencer is with young people. Ads featuring celebrities who are not significantly known among younger audiences, such as Ray Winstone’s appearances in ads for Bet365, would probably escape the ban, because many young people won’t have a scooby who he is,  but gambling ads featuring the likes of José Mourinho, Michael Owen and Harry Redknapp would be banned.

CAPs Say

The CAP clarified: “For example, featuring the England football captain in a gambling ad would be prohibited under this new rule.”

The proposals come after a study commissioned by GambleAware found that gambling adverts had more potential impact on under-18s than previously believed.

The CAP said there was no evidence to justify a complete ban on gambling advertising, and it rejected calls from GambleAware to implement tighter restrictions on the media in which ads can appear.

CAP director, Shahriar Coupal, said: “The consultation proposes a strengthening of our rules and guidance which will help us in our ongoing work to prevent children, young and other vulnerable people from being harmed or exploited by gambling advertising.

“It responds to valuable research commissioned by GambleAware that has highlighted how gambling ads have more potential than previously understood to adversely impact these audiences – that’s something we take very seriously and that we are aiming to address.”

Lenny’s Last Word

Lenny loves compliance, but has to ask the question; what kid in 2020 would EVER be influenced by Michael Owen?