32red managed to escape a possible backlash from the Advertising Standards Commission (ASA) after an advert for the company was accused of being irresponsible and misleading to customers by complainants.

However, after investigation and review of the advert and the complaints, the ASA did not find any signs that BCAP Code rules were breached and did not find it necessary to prescribe any further actions.

One complainant challenged whether the ad was irresponsible, because it linked gambling with the programme ‘Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway’ which was likely to be of particular appeal to under-18s.

32Red Ltd said that Saturday Night Takeaway was not targeted at under-18s; rather it had a wide audience profile and breadth of audience interest, and under-18s were under-represented as a proportion of the population in its audience. They provided audience data (BARB data) which showed that across 2017 and 2018 the average BARB index for the programme was around 90 and that no single episode had indexed over 120. A BARB index of over 120 would indicate that a programme was of particular appeal to under-18-year-olds.

32Red added that Ant and Dec were approaching middle age and presented a range of shows and that therefore they were not associated with, and did not reflect, youth culture.

Clearcast said the ad was based on a similar treatment which linked to the programme ‘I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here’ which also featured Ant and Dec as presenters. At the time of clearing that ad in 2015, Clearcast had assessed whether Ant and Dec would be considered to be of particular appeal to under-18s.