When banter goes too far
Betting companies, especially Paddy Power, consider themselves the bastions of banter. They will go to extreme lengths for a few laughs (and thus Retweets) in the name of promoting their brand. And fair enough, we all love a laugh, as long as it’s in good taste, which Paddy Power’s advert in today’s Metro was not, going by the backlash it invited on social media.
The bookmaker took out a wraparound ad in today’s issue of the London daily newspaper, which displayed a polar bear with a St George’s cross dyed into its fur. The image was captioned ‘England ’till I dye’. Get it? It’s a pun. Hilarious.
The back page shows a message supposed to represent their support for the England team going into this year’s World Cup, which starts in just nine days.
The message explains that “we’ve drawn a line in the sand, or rather, sprayed two lines on one of their [Russia’s] polar bears. We’ve taken their beast and made it our babushka.”
They have previous for this sort of stunt. Before the 2014 World Cup one of their tweets appeared to show parts of the Amazon Rainforest chopped down to spell out a message in support of the England team, which they then clarified was a photoshop and even claimed to have the intention of raising awareness of deforestation.
The newspaper’s readers weren’t enchanted by the ad, and have been expressing their outrage in large numbers online.
https://twitter.com/deomccoyuk/status/1003885967407583232
It’s #WorldEnvironmentDay2018 and @paddypower and @MetroUKNews think it’s amusing to stick graffiti on a noble endangered species. I don’t care if they actually did this or it’s a photoshop stunt, it highlights man’s stupidity and loss of relationship with and respect for nature pic.twitter.com/jtnOEymaBH
— Richard Williams (@RichardRbw) June 5, 2018
What the fuck is that awful Paddy Power advert with a spray painted Polar Bear? Pathetic attempt to advertise through controversy.
Won't ever use them again.— Ashles (@Ashles3000) June 5, 2018
https://twitter.com/nottsfoodie/status/1003900169451134976
https://twitter.com/MissEmBeHa/status/1003932322104856576
https://twitter.com/RobertWoodford/status/1003924216125841409
https://twitter.com/gethynwilliams/status/1003888422887608322
