Irish gambling firm Paddy Power has the dubious honor of having the most-complained about advertisement — ever. It turns out a campaign featuring a picture of Oscar Pistorius next to an Academy Award statue with the blurb, "It's Oscar Time. Money back if he walks," wasn't the firm's smartest idea.
According to the UK's Advertising Standards Authority, the campaign garnered 5,200 complaints before Paddy Power was forced to pull the ad. While the ASA usually lets a campaign run for its allotted time while it conducts an investigation, the public's backlash forced them to take the "unusual step" of telling the company to end the campaign immediately. The ASA is examining if the ad is "offensive for trivializing issues surrounding a murder trial, the death of a woman, and disability."
Paddy Power says it was a one-off ad that only appeared in one newspaper in tandem with Sunday's Oscar show. -- Jordan Valinsky
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Paddy Power
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