William Hill went out to develop an advertisement that was supposed to be a humorous take on gambling and players’ habits. The ad starts with a woman with her husband having breakfast at their kitchen. In an attempt to hurry her husband out of the house, she winds their kitchen clock forward so that the man thinks is late for work. After she sees her husband out the door, the woman rushes upstairs to log on to William Hill bingo. You then hear a voiceover ask: “When will you get your William Hill bingo thrill?”. The lady continues playing her bingo online, before moving the clock back whilst commenting about how time flies.

Bingo Ad Scrutinized

In the UK, bingo rooms such as William Hill are now allowed to air paid advertisements over national television to promote their site and their bingo gaming services. But like all TV advertisements, the Advertising Standards Authority maintains a watchful eye over the contents of these ads and makes sure that they are decent, truthful, honest and legal. This organization, however, is not backed by funds from the British government. Instead, the funds come from a levy on the industry, making it a self-regulating system. They follow a complaints process which may involve investigation and appeals depending on their findings.

The same process was applied to this ad which resulted in seven complaints, with viewers arguing that the ad was harmful due to it depicting a person who showed signs of addiction to gambling based on her actions. Worse still was the fact that she was hiding this “problem” from her family. William Hill’s official response the claims was that what they wanted to portray the funny side of bingo gaming, with the regular morning scenario of a wife wanting to get on with her own time to enjoy the day as soon as her husband is out of the house.

ASA’s Stand

The ASA decided to ban the ad from William Hill based on their observation that the woman did appear desperate about playing online bingo. This, according to the watchdog, was evident when the woman moved the hands of the clock to trick her husband and the fact that she was rushing to play while still wearing her pajamas.