Camelot asked to discontinue its email campaign
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) recently directed Camelot Group to drop its email advertising campaign for the National Lottery.
The Authority upheld a complaint that Camelot encouraged excessive gambling although it rejected the suggesting it implied gambling was indispensable.
According to Camelot, the ad was one of a series of e-mails which were sent to National Lottery players who had opted to receive marketing communications.
The advertiser explained that the ad did not imply that gambling was indispensable and reasoned that it merely suggested that, because of the advantages of playing the Lottery interactively, a good excuse was needed by recipients if they were to miss out. Also, it added that the ad was designed to stress some of the advantages of playing the Lottery interactively and mentioned features like automated ticket checking, advance play and win notifications. The ad did not encourage excessive play but provided information that helped recipients decide if they wanted to play Lottery games interactively.
But the ASA considered that the ad focused on the benefits of playing the Lottery interactively and invited recipients to use their interactive account repeatedly by stating “The more you play the more likely you are to win”.
It noted the ad suggested that recipients had a higher chance of winning if they bought multiple lines, across the numerous Lottery games on both the Wednesday and Saturday weekly draws, and concluded that, by referring to the greater chance of winning resulting from multiple entries, the ad encouraged repeated and potentially excessive gambling.
