Paddy Power: Trying to make lemonade from lemons

Online and land gambling group Paddy Power has made a business out of controversial and often humorous advertising….not always with the intended results, as the Advertising Standards Authority statistics show – one of its ads was the most complained about in British advertising history (see previous reports).

Barely a week ago the company was hauled over the coals by the UK Gambling Commission for alleged money laundering and problem gambling prevention deficiencies that saw it voluntarily making a GBP 280,000 donation to a socially responsible cause.

But the company’s irrepressible marketers always bounce back, making lemonade from lemons whenever they see an opportunity.

The current project sees the release this week of two television ads that centre on the company’s complaints desk, and Channel 4’s Fonejacker star Kayvan Novak has been hired to front the series, playing the roles of both complaints manager and some of the complainants he has to placate.

There will be four tongue-in-cheek televised commercials in the series, with the first two previewed here:

“Kayvan is a genius and dials up the comedy, and complaints, brilliantly in these news ads,” said a Paddy Power spokesman. “It’s fair to say Paddy Power has attracted the odd complaint down the years so it feels right to be solving them now. Kind of…”

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