ASA targets misleading ads

The ASA has issued a warning to World Lottery Club.

After the affiliate controversy, the ASA has recently targeted a controversial ad for World Lottery Club.

The Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) has carried on with a complaint against World Lottery Club for a misleading ad posted on Facebook. The warning was issued shortly after the ASA sanctioned several betting firms for misleading ads published by an affiliate, causing Sky Bet to shut down its own programme.

The ad in question features the words “breaking news” as if it was some type of news broadcast, followed by “Breaking: UK’s biggest lottery draw of £349 million set for tonight” and caused a complaint to be filed with the ASA for not making its commercial intent clear. However, Annexio Ltd, the company promoting World Lottery club, argued that the Facebook ad was labeled as “sponsored”.

Nonetheless, the ASA determined that “the Facebook post was not obviously identifiable as a marketing communication and did not make its commercial intent immediately clear.” It explained it didn’t comply to “recognition of marketing communications” rules, specified in the UK Code of Non-Broadcast Advertising and Direct & Promotional Marketing (CAP Code). They also warned World Lottery Club to make clear ads in the future, without any possibility of them being misleading.