Fruity King abuse ‘joke’ red-carded

fruity king abuse joke red cardedGambling operator Fruity King has scored a major own-goal after posting a tweet which likened the vitriol faced by Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger from his own fans to an abused child in the Yemen.
The company, owned by Total Odds Media, sent the tweet to drum up business during last season’s FA Cup, which Arsenal went on to win. It said: “Arsene Whinger has suffered more abuse from Arsenal fans over the last 9 years than a Yemeni child slave in Saudi Arabia. FA-Cup”.
But the joke fell flat for one complainant, who objected to the use of an analogy relating to international child abuse with football, and challenged whether the ad was offensive.
In response, Total Odds Media claimed the promoted tweet was published by its ad agency with whom it was no longer working. Despite apologising for any offence it may have caused to the Yemeni community, the firm did not believe that the tweet caused serious or widespread offence; it was simply a tasteless joke with no malicious intent, it maintained.
Not impressed, the Advertising Standards Authority said that comparing the amount of abuse a football manager received to that of a Yemeni child trafficked into slavery was entirely inappropriate for an ad.
Concluding that the promoted tweet was likely to cause serious and widespread offence, the watchdog warned Fruity King that it should take particular care when making reference to real world events.