Last week we revealed how despite the best efforts of one busy body politician an advert for Foxybingo.com escaped a ban from the Advertising Standards Authority. However online bingo rival ‘Wink’ we’re quite as fortunate.

Wink Bingo's latest television ad has officially been banned by Britain's Advertising Standards Authority. Apparently, the ad was a little too risqué for the ASA, who said that the ad could be interpreted as condoning online gambling while in the workplace.

The ad was of a maternity nurse celebrating and engrossed in her laptop, which showed a Wink online bingo jackpot win on the screen, while in the background a confused and distraught husband was seen holding a teddy and the legs of what is presumably his wife in full-fledged labor. A slogan then appears on the screen: "Find the appropriate moment".

Spacebar Media, who created the ad for Wink, said the intent of the ad was to distinguish Wink Bingo from other online bingo rooms by being a bit "sassy and irreverent" and in no ways was trying to encourage online gambling in the workplace.
The company added “Find the appropriate moment…” made it obvious that what was shown was highly inappropriate and did not encourage bingo to take priority over work or professional commitments.
And while the ASA did attest that the intent of the commercial was to be humorous they felt the slogan could be interpreted wrongly.

In their ruling the Authority said “We considered that the ad showed a health-care professional ignoring a woman giving birth in order to play bingo on line.  We also considered that the text "Find the appropriate moment", together with the image, was likely to be understood to condone, rather than warn against, gambling in the work place. We did not consider the cartoon style image, or details such as the womans uniform, countered the impression that it was acceptable to gamble at work.”

As a result, the ad has been banned. Wink Bingo’s owners, Daub Ltd, have been told not to publish the ad again in its current form.

Print version