Australian online bookmaker Neds hasn’t been in business more than a couple months, but has already had two of its commercials banned from the airwaves.
This week, the Australian Standards Bureau (ASB) ruled that a Neds commercial had contravened advertising rules by depicting a man who gets into a crowded elevator, presses all the floor buttons, then proceeds to whip out his smartphone and study Neds’ online betting offers.
The ASB said it interpreted the man in the “it’s time to bet” commercial having pressed all the elevator buttons in order to give himself more time to wager online, and thus the commercial was guilty of promoting excessive gambling. Neds has dutifully pulled the ad from its websites and from YouTube.
This is the second time in as many weeks that Neds has been forced to yank its promos off-air. Last week, the ASB ordered Neds to pull an ad in which house builders were depicted as being more interested in wagering with Neds than building houses.