CASTING CROUCH
UNDER Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) rules, gambling ads must not depict any “person or character… who has a strong appeal to those aged under 18”. This includes “all sportspeople well-known” to young people.
In 2023, the ASA decided that two Paddy Power ads which included Peter Crouch – the former England striker who is now a football pundit and podcaster – didn’t break these rules, determining that he is not “of strong appeal to under-18s”. But on 7 March this year, the ASA published new research “on the ‘strong appeal’ of personalities in advertising to young people”, which used Crouch as a case study.