Two ASA Rulings provide more guidance on the "Strong Appeal" Test for Gambling Ads

The ASA has recently handed down two rulings in relation to the new "Strong Appeal" test which gives some further guidance as to how the test should be applied in practice. From 1 October 2022, the CAP Code has stated that gambling ads must not be likely to be of "strong appeal" to children or young people (those under 18 years old). Both ASA rulings concerned the appearance of football personalities in gambling ads, however neither complaint was upheld by the ASA.

Following the ASA guidance that was published last year and the various talks and training from CAP in the lead up to the introduction to the new rule, the suggestion was that the ASA would take a very strict line to enforcement. However, these rulings indicate a welcome restraint on the part of the ASA and provide some useful insight into how it may approach these cases. In particular, the ASA looked at all the evidence in the round to determine whether a particular individual appeals 'strongly' to children, and even if there is a link to a children's TV show or similar, this will not automatically preclude them appearing in a gambling advertisement, provided the advertiser can demonstrate this has not altered the celebrity's overall appeal to minors as a result.

At the same time, the rulings are quite lengthy by ASA standards. Clearly, a large amount of evidence and data was collated before the ads were published to counter any suggestion that the celebrities might appeal to children. Having such data is going to be vital in cases like this going forward.

Micah Richards

A promoted tweet for SkyBet in October 2022 featured text which advertised football betting and an image of Micah Richards, a former professional footballer. He is now a regular and well-known pundit on Match of the Day and other football shows, such as Sky's live coverage of Premier League football games.

Joint CAP and BCAP advertising guidance states that retired footballers who are now pundits are of ‘moderate risk’ of strong appeal to under-18s. The guidance states that their appeal to under-18s should be assessed on the basis of their social and other media profile. Taking this into account, the ASA did not uphold the complaint for the following reasons:

There was also nothing in the way he was presented in the ad that was likely to render him of strong appeal to under-18s.

Peter Crouch

Two TV ads for Paddy Power in November 2022 included Peter Crouch, a former England football player, and advertised bet-builders for the World Cup as part of a Christmas ad campaign. Peter Crouch is a former professional footballer, but has since been appeared in a number of TV shows including Save our Beautiful Game, Peter Crouch: Save Our Summer and Crouchy's Year-Late Euros: Live. He is also a football pundit on BT Sport and was a panellist of season two of ITV's "The Masked Dancer in September and October 2022, and presents a podcast called "That Peter Crouch Podcast".

The joint CAP and BCAP guidance states that gambling advertisers should avoid featuring persons or characters with obvious and direct links to under-18s, including a current or recent children’s TV personality or a retired sportsperson who has moved into presenting/broadcasting relating to that sport, but also into other areas, like youth-oriented reality TV.

The ASA did not uphold this complaint and took into account the following information about Peter Crouch in its decision:

The ASA also held that the Christmas element was not considered a strong appeal as it did not depict Christmas in a way that appealed to children, e.g. there was no Father Christmas.