Is the “Blind Football” ad of Paddy Power Appropriate?
By Aysenur Yenici for The Guardian Online
Have you ever noticed the bias towards the disabled people throughout the media? I am publishing this hoping that someone would read and take a stand and don’t let advertising harm disabled people since no one seems to caring about offending.
In 2010, the advertisement of Paddy Power "blind football", in which the player kicked the cat instead of the ball. ‘Blind football’ was the most complained UK advertisement of 2010 according to, the advertising regulatory body, Advertising Standards Authority in the UK (ASA).
In fact, the announcement received a total of 1,313 complaints, which was enough to rank it third on the list of all time in the UK …show more content…
Although Paddy Power said “The ad was humorous and slapstick in nature and depicted a normal event but featured an action that was so unlikely that it was absurd.” Maybe if blind people could watch the ad, at that time ASA would care about the complaints more than the rich media owners’ promotion. The reasoning of ASA was that because the starring players are the members of England Blind Football Team and because of this reasoning, it should be fine. So don’t they actually admit that they care the distinction since their side is too obvious?
Let’s consider the fact that national team members are already well paid have got a good sport career, so they don’t have any reason to share their true thoughts and emotions through the issue. But unfortunately this kind of advertising can support the bias like why disabled people shouldn’t play with the ball towards someone without a disability playing.
Paddy Power went on to say that the ad did not show the cat while it’s kicked or any suffering of the cat. Indeed at the end, the cat was obviously and purposely shown to be unharmed. This is another illogical situation of the ad, the fact that we don’t see the blood doesn’t change the violence acted. He kicked out the cat and then seemed like he didn't worry too much about the cat. But I know that blind people are just blind not cruel or violence
By Aysenur Yenici for The Guardian Online
Have you ever noticed the bias towards the disabled people throughout the media? I am publishing this hoping that someone would read and take a stand and don’t let advertising harm disabled people since no one seems to caring about offending.
In 2010, the advertisement of Paddy Power "blind football", in which the player kicked the cat instead of the ball. ‘Blind football’ was the most complained UK advertisement of 2010 according to, the advertising regulatory body, Advertising Standards Authority in the UK (ASA).
In fact, the announcement received a total of 1,313 complaints, which was enough to rank it third on the list of all time in the UK …show more content…
Although Paddy Power said “The ad was humorous and slapstick in nature and depicted a normal event but featured an action that was so unlikely that it was absurd.” Maybe if blind people could watch the ad, at that time ASA would care about the complaints more than the rich media owners’ promotion. The reasoning of ASA was that because the starring players are the members of England Blind Football Team and because of this reasoning, it should be fine. So don’t they actually admit that they care the distinction since their side is too obvious?
Let’s consider the fact that national team members are already well paid have got a good sport career, so they don’t have any reason to share their true thoughts and emotions through the issue. But unfortunately this kind of advertising can support the bias like why disabled people shouldn’t play with the ball towards someone without a disability playing.
Paddy Power went on to say that the ad did not show the cat while it’s kicked or any suffering of the cat. Indeed at the end, the cat was obviously and purposely shown to be unharmed. This is another illogical situation of the ad, the fact that we don’t see the blood doesn’t change the violence acted. He kicked out the cat and then seemed like he didn't worry too much about the cat. But I know that blind people are just blind not cruel or violence