ASA Adjudication on Cassava Enterprises (Gibraltar) Ltd

Ad

Two TV ads for an online bingo service.

a. A 10-second ad showed a woman alone in her bedroom screaming "I won" and jumping up and down in excitement. The voice-over said "Simply play bingo and you could win loads of golden tickets to our massive £5-million game. Only at 888ladies.com". On-screen text stated "Over 18's only. T&C's apply.

b. A 30-second ad showed a street and a woman was heard screaming "Ahhhhhh! I won!". Inside the house the woman was shown in her bedroom screaming and jumping up and down with excitement. The voice-over said "When you win a golden ticket at 888 ladies bingo, you're so close to the millions, you can start practising". The woman looked in the mirror, sighed and fell silent before screaming and celebrating again. The voice-over continued "Simply play bingo and you could win loads of golden tickets to our massive £5-million game. Go to 888ladies.com. now". On-screen text stated "Over 18's only. T&C's apply".

Issue

One viewer complained that the ad was misleading because it exaggerated the likely amount of the winnings.

BCAP TV Code

Response

Cassava Enterprises (Gibraltar) Ltd t/a 888ladies.com (Cassava) said the ads did not make any claims about a guaranteed maximum cash prize but concentrated on the games golden ticket entry mechanism. They said 30 golden tickets were allocated daily to new and existing players on the 888ladies bingo website and those ticket holders were awarded free entry to the £5-million 24-ball-game.  They argued that the ad related to the free entry to the game through this ticket allocation and not to an amount that was guaranteed to be won in the final game.  They said £5-million prize was technically available to be won by a golden ticket holder, but argued the ad did not state that this amount would definitely be won or that it was a guaranteed prize.

Cassava believed the language used in the ads was familiar to the average consumer in relation to prize promotions and that the use of the "£xm game" statement would be understood to be a reference to be the total prize pool that was available to players and not a fixed amount that would definitely be awarded to the winner.  They likened the cash prize to those that were available in the weekly National Lottery draws and argued that, despite a specific jackpot prize being referred to in those ads, consumers understood and accepted that there was no guarantee that the jackpot amount would be won by one individual.  

They argued the ads made it clear through on-screen text that terms and conditions applied to the game and said  the structure of the game and how the top prize would be awarded was clearly detailed on the website.     

Clearcast said Cassava had demonstrated that a £5-million prize could be won and that, because the ad referred to winning a golden ticket to enter the £5-million game, it was clear that it was a selective process and that you had to win a golden ticket to even participate.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA noted £5 million was available to be won by one 888ladies.com golden ticket holder if they were able to match the 24 numbers on their card with the first 24 balls drawn in the game. We understood that if no one matched all the numbers on the card within the first 24 balls, the total prize fund dropped each time a new ball was drawn until such a time that someone matched all of the numbers on their card.  We understood that after 40 balls were drawn, the prize fund remained constant at £50,000 regardless of the number of additional balls drawn, and that this amount would definitely be awarded to the individual who then completed their card.

We noted that, although ads for other cash games such as the National Lottery detailed jackpot amounts that were statistically unlikely to be won by any one individual, the prize structure differed from the £5-million game detailed in Cassavas ad because, however it was awarded, the full original lottery prize fund was allocated to one or many ticket holders or would be rolled over in full to the following weeks game. We noted in comparison that the prize fund in the £5-million game dropped as the game went on.

We considered that the fact the prize fund operated on a downward sliding scale was a significant condition attached to the golden ticket game and noted the opportunity to win a golden ticket to enter the "massive £5 million game" was cited as an incentive for viewers to play bingo in both ads. We concluded that the omission of this information from the ads was likely to exaggerate the value of the cash prize actually awarded to the winning ticket holder in the golden ticket game.  We concluded, therefore, that the ads were likely to mislead.

The ad breached CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Code rules 5.1.1, 5.1.2 5.1.3 (Misleading advertising) and 5.2.3 (Misleading advertising - qualification).

Action

The ad should not appear again in its current form.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Broadcast)