A Lucky Cow Bingo campaign, featuring a jovial Friesian stood on her hind legs dancing to music, has managed to escape a trip to the advertising abattoir despite claims that it appeals to kids.
The TV ad voiceover stated: “Someone’s happy. Get that lucky cow feeling with luckycowbingo.com. The home of brilliant bingo, super slots and beautiful bonuses like this…Get that lucky cow feeling with up to 500 free spins at luckycowbingo.com.” On-screen text stated, “luckycowbingo.com/bingo”.
But one complainant rifled off a missive to the Advertising Standards Authority to challenge whether the content of the ad was likely to be of strong appeal to those under 18 years of age, and therefore breached the Code.
In response, Jumpman Gaming said the dancing cow character was a visual representation of the “Lucky Cow” bingo brand and that the dancing was intended to portray the “lucky” element of the “Lucky Cow” brand name.
The cow was not dancing to music that would have been of strong appeal to children and it did not speak or address the viewer. They said they had ensured the cow was not cuddly or cute and although animated, it was not cartoon-like and none of the cow’s features were exaggerated. There was no similarity between the cow and any animations or toys that might be known to children or young people, it stressed.
TV ad clearing house Clearcast said that it considered the combination of the dancing cow and the generic track, while fun, was designed to represent the “Lucky Cow” branding and would only be of appeal to the advertiser’s target, adult, audience.
In its ruling, published today, the ASA acknowledged that the dancing cow featured in the ad was unusual and whimsical. However, it considered that, while it was apparent the cow was not a real animal, it was life-like in its depiction, did not have exaggerated features and had not been digitally altered to make it cute or cartoon-like. Further to that, the cow was not overly colourful, and did not resemble a soft toy or a character from children’s stories.
The music featured in the ad had a cheerful tone, but the watchdog considered it was generic in style with no lyrics and was not associated with known songs that were likely to be of appeal to under-18s.
While the bright colours in the ad and the dancing cow could appeal to some children or young persons, given the overall presentation of the character, on balance the ASA concluded that the ad was not likely to have strong appeal to under-18s and cleared it for future use.
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