The Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP) are announcing a public consultation on amending existing rules around featuring children and young people in ads for lotteries. The proposed changes retain the existing protections for children of ensuring that lottery ads do not contain content that may appeal particularly to them.
The consultation proposes the introduction of the following new rules to the Advertising Codes to replace the existing regulations on featuring under-25s in lottery advertising:
17.15 [Marketing communications] for lotteries must not feature anyone who is, or seems to be, under 25 years old (under-25s) participating in gambling.
17.16 [Marketing communications] for lotteries which include any reference to scratchcards or online instant-win lottery products must not feature under-25s in a significant role.
Other [marketing communications] for lotteries must not feature under-25s in a significant role unless either:
17.16.1 the under-25s are featured solely to depict the good causes supported by the lottery and there is no explicit encouragement to purchase a lottery product; or
17.16.2 the lottery primarily benefits under-25s (including in a family setting) and the under-25s featured are representative of the primary beneficiaries of the lottery.
The broadcast version of the rules will use ‘advertisements’ instead of ‘marketing communications’, for consistency with existing rules.
The consultation closes at 5pm on 23 January 2020.