ASA deems Buzz Bingo Halloween ad as appealing to children

The Advertising Standard Authority in the United Kingdom has weighed in the case of a Buzz Bingo Halloween ad that has been deemed as inappropriate because of its alleged appeal to children.

The watchdog has argued that the ad, "MONSTER MONDAYS – £50,000 MUST BE WON EVERY MONDAY IN OCTOBER," which was targeted after a complaint was lodged against it, indeed broke the CAP Code, which specifically prohibits any gambling advertisement material to hold "strong appeal to children," effectively upholding the ruling.

This has been denied by Buzz Bingo which tried to reason that none of the marketing materials had been intended for children. However, ASA said that animated content, such as the one used in the Buzz Bingo ad, could appeal to those under the age of 18, and therefore make it a potential marketing material. Any materials that could somehow appeal to children are prohibited from advertisements linked to gambling.

ASA also added that the chosen theme of the ad, Halloween, was generally considered to already hold a very strong appeal to children. Buzz Bingo argued that the ad was only shared on Facebook, and it was exclusively restricted to individuals over the age of 18 or older. Not only that, but the ad itself was part of a broader marketing effort that only focused on individuals older than 25 and interested in bingo.

The company argued that it had taken all precautions to ensure that its ad never made it to younger audiences. ASA did accept this part of the argument but riposted that the only way to be certain that this had indeed been the case would be to ensure that every individual who saw the advertisement was age verified, which was not the case.

ASA argued that Facebook currently does not really do much to verify the age of individuals, and that everyone has to self-verify. The regulator reminded that when the matter concerned a gambling advertisement of any sort, the most stringent criteria were applied to ensure that vulnerable groups or underage individuals did not see the advertisement in the first place.

ASA did commend Buzz Bingo on the level of cooperation shown during the investigation, however, but established that rule had been breached, nevertheless. ASA has told Buzz Bingo to never relaunch the ad in its current form and consider the current ruling in building future marketing materials to be propagated across social media.

Image credit: Unsplash.com