Paddy Power launches first TV ad

February 27, 2009

Betting firm Paddy Power is cashing in on the cheapest advertising rates in decades to launch its first TV campaign with a commercial featuring former England footballer Carlton Palmer sharing a bubble bath with a punter.

The first of a series of Paddy Power TV ads, created by ad agency Karmarama, launches this Saturday to take advantage of the Carling Cup final between Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur on Sky Sports on Sunday afternoon.

The ad features Palmer, who was chosen after the bookmaker held an online vote asking the public to choose which player from a shortlist of former footballers they would most like to see appear in a bubble bath.

In the ad a man is seen having a romantic candle-lit bath with his partner. She slips under the water and is replaced by the football-kitted Palmer. “Isn’t this nice, just you and Carlton Palmer having a bath?,” he says.

A second ad, featuring former champion jockey Richard Dunwoody on horseback delivering good betting news in the middle of the night to a man in a kitchen, also breaks this weekend.

The Dunwoody ad will be used in the run-up to the Cheltenham Festival on 10 March.

Paddy Power’s TV campaign aims to take a “fun and irreverent look at the worlds of sport and betting” and will run across Sky, Setanta, Channel 4, ITV4 and Channel Five.

A third TV ad featuring former Liverpool goalkeeper Bruce Grobelaar will run in August in the run-up to the start of the next Premier League football season.

Grobelaar came second in the online vote to Palmer from a shortlist that included Peter Beardsley, Neville Southall, Viv Anderson and Terry Hurlock.

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