New Wink Bingo Ad Banned By ASA

Online bingo operator Wink Bingo has found its most recent press advertisement the subject of an enquiry by the UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).

Spacebar Media were responsible for creating the ad which pictures a maternity nurse delighting in winning a game of bingo whilst in a hospital ward next to an assortment of surgical equipment and a laptop which displays the words 'Wink Bingo Winner' on its' screen.

A startled man holding a teddy bear is pictured in the background with the legs of a woman lying in a hospital bed whilst the words "Find the appropriate moment..."  are pictured in the foreground.

Spacebar claimed that the advertisement was aimed at females and intended to depict Wink Bingo as "irreverent, cheeky, sassy and a bit naughty" but was not intended to represent a real life situation.

The ASA argued that the ad could be assumed to imply that Wink Bingo were promoting online gambling inside of the workplace, and went on to ban the ad altogether concluding that it contravened guidelines set out by the Committee of Advertising.

They went on to say in an official statement:-

We acknowledged that the intention of the ad was to portray a real-life situation in a humorous way, but considered that the ad nonetheless showed a health-care professional ignoring a woman giving birth in order to play bingo online.
 

28th August 2008