Arsenal’s advertisements have been deemed misleading.
English Premier League football club, Arsenal FC had launched its fan token called $AFC earlier this year.
The United Kingdom’s advertisement regulator, Advertising Standards Authority, on Wednesday, banned 2 advertisements promoting the club’s $AFC token.
Source: Arsenal
ASA deemed the advertisements by Arsenal as misleading as they did not explain the inherent risks appropriately.
Moreover, ASA ruled that the advertisements took advantage of the investors’ inexperience with crypto assets. Additionally, the regulator felt that the advertisers did not make it clear that the token is a crypto asset.
The advertisements in question were aired on August 6 and August 12.
Arsenal has assured that these tokens are not investment products but are utility tokens to enable fans to vote on the club’s decisions.
The $AFC token was launched on Socios application. A few weeks after the advertisements were aired, Socios allowed the trading of fan tokens.
Taking this into account, the ASA views utility tokens as crypto assets. “They were nevertheless categorised by the FCA as cryptoassets, as were cryptocurrencies.”
Consequently, ASA ordered Arsenal to take down the advertisements and told it “to ensure that their future ads did not trivialise investment in cryptoassets and did not irresponsibly take advantage of consumers’ lack of experience or credulity.”
According to a report by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Arsenal would seek an independent review of the ruling. The club claims that it provided the necessary caveats in the advertisements.
Digital asset advertisement is turning out to be a contentious issue. For the past few weeks, India is also grappling with the issue. BCCI had barred IPL teams due to the surrounding uncertainty.
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