Watchdog bans BetEzy ad
BetEzy ad banned

BetEzy ad was suggestive of paid sexual services says watchdog.

Gone are the times when everything could be sold as long as the ad featured a scantily clad woman, as the Australian online betting company BetEzy found out earlier this week.

The Advertising Standards Bureau (ASB) decided that citizen complaints against the company’s latest print ad were legitimate and called on BetEzy to refrain from using it.

The ad featured a young woman pulling down her top rather suggestively, along with the words ‘Get Laid’ written across the picture. It was meant to advertise BetEzy’s latest lay and Mobile sports betting services to existing customers, but there have been complaints about its sexually suggestive nature.

The particular complaint that the ASB acted upon had been filed by a mother who found the flyer among her mail. She called the company’s wordplay “offensive, disgusting and unnecessary,” adding that she did not want her two children exposed to it.

BetEzy insisted that the direct mailings targeted solely its male customers and the complainant could have just thrown it away. They also emphasized that the ad used a common betting term.

It is unclear why a company that uses the latest technologies thought it would be a smart strategy to switch to paper-based communication with their customers.

While acknowledging that there was no nudity in the ad, the ASB decided that the combination of the pose and language was suggestive of paid sexual services, which is prohibited by advertising regulations. It demanded BetEzy to cease such activities.

BetEzy agreed to comply.

The company offers a wide variety of betting opportunities to customers. Signing up for the services which were promoted through the controversial ad, allow punters to have access to features such as iPad gambling.

With that in mind it is rather puzzling why BetEzy deemed it a smart strategy to switch to paper-based marketing communication with its online customers.