The Advertising Standards Authority in the United Kingdom has grounded an ad by Internet gambling powerhouse Paddy Power, which it claims discredits the airline industry. Paddy Power, Ireland's largest bookmaker and a sponsor of the Gambling911.com website, had been offering odds on which major commercial airline would go under next.

The Paddy Power press campaign, which ran in national newspapers, used the headline "Next airline to go bust?".

The ad was made to look like an airline pricing guide with the wording "Booked a Flight.  Don't Sweat.  Insure With Paddy Power".  Each airline is listed with a price equation for the odds of it going under next.  FlyGlobeSpan and SpanAir were the 3/1 and 4/1 odd favorites, respectively.  United Airlines was given 25/1 odds, JetBlue 33/1 odds and Virgin Atlantic 100/1 odds.  Air Berlin, Sky Europe and Wizz Air were each given odds within 20/1 of going under.

The Advertising Standards Authority received a complaint that the ad "denigrated" the airlines named in the ad because it implied each was at risk of going into administration, according to the London Guardian.

The ASA said running the odds "inevitably suggested that airlines were at risk of entering administration and that some airlines were more at risk of doing so than others, the ad suggested that the airlines it featured were at risk".

The ASA concluded that the ad "unfairly discredited" those airlines and banned the Paddy Power commercial.

It is not the first time Paddy Power has run amiss of the Advertising Standards Authority.  Earlier this year, the company ran an ad featuring dwarfs who achieved stamina (and the girl) by gambling online.  The ASA banned the ad, citing that such claims were false.

Paddy Power began offering odds on the next airline to go under after a series of airlines shut down this year, many within weeks of each other.

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Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com