Ladbrokes ad uses new strapline following ASA ban

Ladbrokescasino.com has launched a television campaign using a new strapline following the banning of its “quench your thrill buds” advertisements in January.

The “Hide and Seek” campaign has been created by M&C Saatchi and features a man playing hide and seek with a giant primate called a Sifaka Lemur. It ends with the strapline “Don’t hide from thrills, seek them out at Ladbrokes.com”.

The activity comes three months after the Advertising Standards Authority banned the gaming operators “thrill buds” campaign for “portraying gambling in a context of toughness and linking it to recklessness”.

The ads showed people involved in bizarre situations to “quench their thrill buds”. The campaign was filmed in a documentary style and used the strapline “If only he’d seen Ladbrokescasino.com it would have quenched his thrill buds”.

The watchdog received a complaint about one execution showing a diver and skydiver going to increasing lengths to satisfy their thirst for adventure and ruled the ad breached the CAP TV Advertising Standards.

Ladbrokes hit back at the ASA, claiming that the ruling was a “ban on humour” and that the decision was an example of “political correctness going too far”.

The new campaign will run on digital and terrestrial channels.

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