Shock ad is a safe bet

THE advertising campaign by Paddy Power bookmakers uses the classic trick of offending the hair-trigger sensibilities of some of the more fragile among us in order to gain a huge amount of extra publicity for the product they’re selling.

This is now a standard advertising tool whose effectiveness Benetton, among others, has repeatedly demonstrated.

While The Life of Brian and Father Ted inspired similar reactions, I’m not sure that Paddy Power’s joke is likely to go down in history as a comedy classic.

In fact, if it weren’t for the shrieks of horror from the hypersensitive, I doubt it would have been much noticed at all. Which is probably as it should be.

Jaime Hyland

Heinrich-Mann-Str 26

13156 Berlin

Germany.