Complaint against Paddy Power ad upheld for being 'derogatory' towards English people

The ad appeared on the side of a bus which had been spotted at an airport

The Paddy Power complaint was one of 18 cases upheld in full by the Advertising Standards Authority in its latest complaints bulletin, including complaints against Temu, Chemist Warehouse, Maxol, as well as Therapie Clinic. File picture: Denis Minihane

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has upheld a complaint against the betting company Paddy Power which claimed an ad the company placed on the side of a bus was "racist and derogatory towards English people”.

It was one of 18 cases upheld in full by the ASA in its latest complaints bulletin. It also upheld one case in part and chose not to uphold five other cases.

The ASA said it had received a complaint about an ad that appeared on the exterior of a bus which stated “LET’S GO JAPAN. Polite. Organised. Clean up after themselves. The exact opposite of England”, alongside a fallen England flag.

The authority said the complainant considered the advertisement “racist and derogatory towards English people” with the ASA agreeing. The advertisement was reportedly spotted on the exterior of a bus while at the airport.

In addition to the complaint against Paddy Power, complaints were also upheld against Temu, Chemist Warehouse, Maxol, as well as Therapie Clinic.

In the case against Temu, a customer complained about a mobile pop-up on its website which offered users “two gifts” at “100% OFF”, with the offer described as being for “App New Users Only” and “minimum purchase required”.

The ASA said the complainant considered the offer of two free gifts for ‘App New Users Only’ to be misleading, as “they understood this to mean customers who were new users of the Temu app”.

“After downloading the app and signing in, however, they were informed that the offer was only available to ‘app new users with new devices’,” the ASA said.

“The complainant subsequently contacted the advertiser and was told they were ineligible because they were an existing Temu customer. They considered this misleading because, although they were not a new Temu customer, they were a new user of the app, and the advertisement did not clearly state that existing Temu customers were excluded from the promotion.” 

The complaint against Chemist Warehouse centred around its claim to be “Ireland's Cheapest Chemist” which the complainant said was an “an unsubstantiated superlative claim, giving consumers the impression that the advertiser was definitively cheaper than every other chemist in Ireland”.

The ASA upheld this complaint but ruled against a second issue raised by the complainant.

The complaint against Maxol related to a YouTube ad which featured a bird’s eye view of a car driving up a country road with a voiceover stating “make a better choice when you fill up at Maxol”, with the website address “maxolcarbonneutral.ie” displayed at the end.

The ASA said the complainant considered the advertisement misleading as they “believed the environmental and climate claims in the advertisement suggested that the fuel was carbon neutral which the complainant stated was not the case”.

“They said the claims failed to account for the fuel’s full lifecycle and broader environmental impact, and questioned the effectiveness of the carbon offsetting schemes used, describing them as potentially misleading and a form of greenwashing.” 

The complaint upheld against Therapie Clinic focused on a marketing email promoting a discounted upgrade to its laser hair removal packages “from just €29.95 get full body laser hair removal” and encouraged existing customers to “upgrade full body laser hair removal from only €29.95”.

The advertisement was considered misleading as the complainant understood the offer to provide full body laser hair removal for €29.95 per session, but “was later informed that it only covered additional areas for customers who had already purchased specific laser hair removal treatments”.