BITE Insight

In case you hadn’t noticed, there’s a football World Cup going on. And it’s happening in Russia. This global sporting celebration has seen an outpouring of ads, from the BBC’s animated tapestry to the Times’ Alexa skill and Beats by Dr Dre’s Guy Ritchie-directed slot.

But there is one ad that has seemingly drummed up more column inches than any other so far. And its star was not a famous footballer but rather an 800-pound Apex predator.

Paddy Power’s World Cup campaign, England ‘Til I Dye, launched with a brief clip of a man speaking Russian as he ran up to a supposedly sleeping polar bear and spray painted the St. George’s cross on its side. This was supported by wraps on the Metro and was followed by an explosion of criticism from public and industry alike.

Pitch Marketing Group worked with Paddy Power to reveal the truth behind the ad, which was that the betting company were teaming up with the world’s only organisation dedicated to wild polar bears, Polar Bears International to help fund their first Russian Arctic research project. And that the spray painting was done in VFX, not on the actual polar bear.

England ‘Til I Dye is the latest campaign from Paddy Power who are known for their subversive and sometimes scandalous marketing. This campaign is no exception. As they have demonstrated, Paddy Power does not shy away from highlighting greater causes, in this case the plight of polar bears in the Russian Arctic, an area that is notoriously expensive and logistically challenging to explore, and as such remains relatively uncharted.

The closing lines of the video hammer the brand’s beliefs home: “You wouldn’t find us encroaching on a polar bear’s natural habitat. We leave that to Vladimir and the Russian oil companies”.