ASA scolds BoyleSports for Easter crucifixion ad
Advertising watchdog says emailed image and text was likely to cause "serious offence" to some recipients
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has reprimanded BoyleSports over an Easter email ad campaign it said may have caused “serious offence” to Christians.
The Irish bookmaker sent out an email on 25 March showing a hand nailed to a length of wood, with blood dripping from where the nail entered the hand.
Text below the image stated: “In memory of the dearly departed JC, we are offering you a sacrilecious Bonus this Easter weekend … So don’t just sit there gorging your own body weight in chocolate, that’s disrespectful. Get on BoyleSports Gaming and get your nailed on bonus”.
The ASA received one complaint about the email from a consumer who said the ad depicted a crucifixion and “mocked the Christian religion at an important time in the Christian year”.
The complaint was upheld by the ASA which agreed the ad made light of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, while the jokey language and graphic image was “likely to cause serious offence to some recipients”.
“We considered the offence was likely to be particularly strongly felt by those of the Christian faith at Easter, when the imagery would have a particularly strong resonance. We considered that the ad was likely to cause serious offence and concluded that it was therefore in breach of the Code,” the ASA statement said.
Boyles defended the ad, claiming there was no religious symbolism in the image and that the language and imagery associated with crucifixion had been absorbed into everyday culture.
However, the bookmaker was warned the ad must not run again in its current form and told to ensure future ads do not cause serious or widespread offence.
BoyleSports wasn’t the only operator making risqu? religious references around the Easter period after BetBright also sent out a promotional email containing the message: “It may be Good Friday, and Jesus would probably frown on you betting on a holy day, but he’s been dead years and probably won’t mind anymore – why let him spoil your fun on your day off?”
The bookmaker sent a follow-up email hours later, apologising for the “inappropriate Good Friday reference” and promising to deal with the matter internally.