Last week Irish bookmaker Paddy Power’s controversial Cheltenham Festival Ladies Day advertisement was canned by the UK’s advertising regulators. It was a decision taken by Clearcast after members of the public had made a number of complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).
The UK transgender group, The Beaumont Society, said it wasn’t inappropriate as “the entire campaign would be a tongue-in-cheek look at the Ladies Day race meeting where these days a large number of cross dresser’s make a day of it”.
As we anticipate the next cheeky Irish chappy’s next ad in the “We Hear You” campaign, allegedly entitled “CHAVS”, we thought we’d see what you guys thought of the paddy power pandemonium. Is it all just a silly PR stunt? Did the ASA overreact? We launched a poll asking our readers: “Did the ASA do the right thing by banning the Paddy Power ad?” and here are the results.
With a massive majority, 65% of you said “It doesn’t matter, the controversy made it a success”, suggesting that at the end of the day, any publicity is good publicity, and it probably was just a cheap PR stunt. But who gives a shit? It worked! 20% didn’t agree and said “No – the ASA overstepped their bounds”, and only 15% of you (probably the proportion of our transgender readership) believed Paddy Power went too far this time, answering “Yes – it was inappropriate”.
If you can’t get enough of our immense polls- and no, you dirty minded creeps, we’re referring to our surveys – then get voting on our next question: Who’s be best to play Calvin Ayre in a movie about his life? Cast your opinion on the left hand side and tell us if Charlie Sheen, Nicholas Cage, Liam Neeson, George Clooney, Ben Stiller or even Calvin himself would best suit the role.
