by Anton Johan
Paddy Power, the Irish based novelty and sports betting service provider, has come out in defence of its latest marketing campaign, shooting down claims that an ad it made constituted cruelty to animals.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said that it had received nearly 700 complaints from angry viewers who found offence in Paddy Power's ad that features a cat.
The ad shows a game of football being played by blindfolded players, using a ball with a bell inside of it.
When a cat arrives on the scene, the ball is no longer available to play, and the teams then use the cat as their ball.
"As a charity that cares passionately about animal welfare we are deeply troubled by anything which appears to condone animal cruelty," said the Chief Executive of Cats Protection, Peter Hepburn.
"Sadly we see the appalling consequences of animal cruelty on a daily basis," he continued. "At best this commercial is in very bad taste and worst it may encourage cruelty towards animals."
He added that he hoped that Paddy Power would take immediate action to remove the ad.
However, Paddy Power is adamant that it did nothing wrong by featuring the ad, saying that no animals were harmed when filming it.
"Our aim is always to entertain and never to offend and in this case we took several measures so that this would be the case," said a spokesman for the group.
"We had a vet present at the shoot and the cat enjoyed himself very much," he added. "The public has the intelligence to see a fictional event and distinguish between right and wrong."
