Ad description
A poster ad for the National Lottery, seen on 17 May 2018, featured an image of a rainbow scratch card with the text “Scratch and See … Top prize £50,000 Lucky Fortune … 7 CHANCES TO WIN! £2”. The poster was placed outside the entrance of a school.
Issue
The complainant who saw the ad placed outside a school challenged whether the ad for a lottery scratch card was directed at children under 16 years of age.
Response
Camelot UK Lotteries Ltd t/a National Lottery said that their policy was that National Lottery ads should not be placed within 100 metres of a school. The ad was placed using a database which was supposed to identify and remove schools from potential locations using postcode data. Camelot confirmed that, on this occasion, the postcode database failed to identify the school. Camelot took action to address this by ensuring the ad had been removed and they now used a different database tool which looked at the geographical boundaries of schools, rather than postcode data, to ensure that ads were not placed within 100 metres of a school.
Assessment
Upheld
The CAP Code stated that marketing communications for lotteries should not be directed at those aged under 16 years through the selection of media or context in which they appear.
The ad was for a National Lottery scratch card which was placed directly outside the entrance of a school. The ASA was concerned by the proximity of the poster to the school and considered that the audience of the ad would likely be significantly skewed towards under-16s and because of that it was directed at children through the context in which the ad appeared. We therefore considered that the placement of the ad breached the Code.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 17.14 17.14 Marketing communications for lotteries should not be directed at those aged under 16 years through the selection of media or context in which they appear. (Lotteries).
Action
The ad must not be displayed again in close proximity to a school. We told Camelot UK Lotteries Ltd t/a National Lottery to ensure that their lottery ads were not directed at children under 16, including that they were not displayed in close proximity to a primary or secondary school.
