An “irresponsible” tweet by Ladbrokes has been banned for featuring Jake Paul, a YouTuber and professional boxer who is a favourite among teenagers. The ad on the bookmaker’s Twitter feed, seen in February, featured an image of Paul and a caption saying: “@TommyTNTFury beat @JakePaul by split decision last night. So, we’ve got to ask the question… What’s next for Jake Paul? Vote here now.”
At the bottom of the tweet was a poll with the options: “Win the re-match”, “Head to the MMA”, “Return to YouTube” and “Join the WWE”. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) investigated whether the ad breached rules for including an individual likely to be of strong appeal to under-18s.
Ladbrokes said the ad was published after the fight between Jake Paul and Tommy Fury and did not include any “calls to action”, promotional offers or links back to its site. It said its Twitter feed and respective tweets were age-gated and could not be accessed by users unless Twitter had accepted their age as being over 18.
