BA pulls advert showing couple winning on slot machines

BA has withdrawn a TV ad featuring holidaymakers making easy money from slot machines after a group of MPs complained that the airline was glamorising gambling. The decision comes after MPs including the former work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith and the Labour gambling campaigner Carolyn Harris wrote to the company urging it to pull the “ill-judged” advertisement. “Having spent many hours in recent months listening to harrowing stories of futures that have been ruined, families that have been destroyed and lives that have been lost as a direct result of gambling, we were appalled to see such a well-respected company glamorising it,” they wrote in a letter to the BA CE, Alex Cruz. Harris also complained to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), which received several complaints after the ad was shown this week. In a letter to Harris, the advertising regulator said BA had responded to its initial enquiries by removing the advert from transmission. “Given that BA have confirmed that the ad will no longer be appearing, we will not be pursuing further action at this time,” the ASA wrote. <br/>