by Mario Alfonsi | Published on Mar 3, 2012 | Updated on Mar 3, 2012A racy 888 Poker advertisement was banned by the United Kingdom’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), after complaints surfaced that the ad was linking sexual success and seduction with gambling.The ad was designed to advertise 888 Poker’s online poker room, and in particular, the ability for players to use their webcams to play face-to-face with other players from around the world. In the ad, a man sits down to play at his computer and switches on his webcam. The narrator for the ad then says, in part, “Turn your webcam on at 888 Poker and play face-to-face online. You never know who you might meet at a poker cam table.”During the ad, the man interacts with a number of other people, and that’s where some found an issue with the ad. Among the other players are several women, including one wearing a bikini while playing from a swimming pool.That’s where the controversy stemmed from, as complaints surfaced that the ad suggested that gambling was linked with “sexual success.” However, 888.com strongly disagreed with the complaint, saying that none of the characters in the ad’s story acted in anything other than a platonic nature. All of the players in the fictional webcam encounter treated each other in a friendly nature, demonstrating the interactivity of the PokerCam interface. In addition, they defended the use of the bikini-clad woman, saying that she was used as an example of the fact that players could access the 888 Poker games anywhere and at any time.However, the ASA disagreed – though their comments did seem to suggest that it was a tough decision. According to the ASA, featuring attractive people in the ad wasn’t enough, on its own, to suggest that seduction or sexual success was linked to the poker games. However, the ASA determined that the combination of the narration and the way the characters interacted – particularly the movements of the woman in the bikini – was enough to suggest seduction, which broke the relevant advertising codes.
