Paddy Power learns that an ad making fun of Oscar Pistorius' murder trial was stupid

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
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Paddy Power
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Jordan Valinsky is the lead writer for Speed Reads. Before joining The Week, he wrote for New York Observer's tech blog, Betabeat, and tracked the intersection between popular culture and the internet for The Daily Dot. He graduated with a degree in online journalism from Ohio University.
-
Budget-friendly Alpine escapes: the best ski resorts in Austria
The Week Recommends Expect fewer tourists and plenty of snow in the stunning Austrian Alps
-
Megabatteries are powering up clean energy
Under the radar They can store and release excess energy
-
Sudoku hard: October 21, 2025
The Week's daily hard sudoku puzzle
-
Hungary’s Krasznahorkai wins Nobel for literature
Speed Read László Krasznahorkai is the author of acclaimed novels like ‘The Melancholy of Resistance’ and ‘Satantango’
-
Primatologist Jane Goodall dies at 91
Speed Read She rose to fame following her groundbreaking field research with chimpanzees
-
Florida erases rainbow crosswalk at Pulse nightclub
Speed Read The colorful crosswalk was outside the former LGBTQ nightclub where 49 people were killed in a 2016 shooting
-
Trump says Smithsonian too focused on slavery's ills
Speed Read The president would prefer the museum to highlight 'success,' 'brightness' and 'the future'
-
Trump to host Kennedy Honors for Kiss, Stallone
Speed Read Actor Sylvester Stallone and the glam-rock band Kiss were among those named as this year's inductees
-
White House seeks to bend Smithsonian to Trump's view
Speed Read The Smithsonian Institution's 21 museums are under review to ensure their content aligns with the president's interpretation of American history
-
Charlamagne Tha God irks Trump with Epstein talk
Speed Read The radio host said the Jeffrey Epstein scandal could help 'traditional conservatives' take back the Republican Party
-
CBS cancels Colbert's 'Late Show'
Speed Read 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' is ending next year