A PADDY POWER advertisement that compared Japanese and English football fans has been deemed to have breached the Advertising Standards Authority’s code by painting English people in a negative light. 

During this summer’s Fifa World Cup, the betting company produced a series of billboard ads that made fun of different countries, including one about Japan and England.

The ad said: “LET’S GO JAPAN. Polite. Organised. Clean up after themselves. The exact opposite of England.”

A complaint was lodged with the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), describing the ad as “racist and derogatory towards English people”.

The complainant said they were offended by the portrayal of English people. 

In a response submitted to the ASA by Paddy Power, the company argued that it had not breached the advertising code because only one person had filed a complaint, the ad could not be seen as having caused “widespread offence”.

The company also argued that the ad was part of a campaign that included humorous references to other countries, including Brazil, Ireland and Czechia.

The ASA said Paddy Power submitted that the ad was “intended as a joke and was unlikely to be interpreted as encouraging hostility, contempt, abuse or ridicule towards English people”.

“They further argued that while some consumers may have found the advertisement distasteful, the Code did not prohibit advertising solely because it may offend individual tastes or preferences.”

Finally, the company said the ad was supposed to refer to English football fans, not English people in general. 

The ASA acknowledged that humour is “a recognised and accepted feature of advertising” but concluded that “the humour in this instance relied on a negative portrayal of a nationality”.

The watchdog considered that the ad “conveyed the message that English people were not polite, were unorganised and did not clean up after themselves”.

The ASA found that the ad “did not respect the dignity of all persons and was likely to cause ridicule”.

“The Council therefore concluded that the advertisement was likely to cause offence on the grounds of nationality and in breach of Sections 3.16 and 3.17 of the Code.”