Mr Vegas's cartoon slot tiles banned — the pink elephant was the problem
A Facebook ad showed five slot game tiles. The ASA banned two — a storybook elephant and a cartoon shark — and cleared the candy and fisherman ones.
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3,222 PUBLISHED CASES · REGULARLY UPDATEDIsoi's '625% penetration' bus ad read as a Korean War joke — the CEO apologised
625 is the date the Korean War began and 'penetration' is what the invasion did. Isoi's serum slogans ran together; the CEO called it a failure of judgment.
Read the caseJapanet's osechi 'regular price' never came back — the CAA ordered the ad stopped
29,980-yen 'regular price' with 10,000-yen discount; the osechi sold out and the price never returned. The regulator called it misleading; Japanet fought back.
Read the caseUnderwear that 'stops 0.2 litres of urine leaking' — the CAA ordered the claim stopped
Two companies sold 1,980-yen men's underwear promising to hold back 0.2 litres of urine. The regulator found no evidence and ordered the claims gone.
Read the caseGeo's 'limited-time' buyback deals never ended — the CAA's first buyback order
Geo ran six months of back-to-back 'limited-time' buyback bumps of 10-20%. The CAA ruled the urgency was a fiction — its first order in the buyback industry.
Read the caseBetway's Chelsea badge ad banned — YouTube could not keep under-18s out
A YouTube pre-roll showed fans in Chelsea scarves; the ASA ruled the crest appeals to children and age checks are not enough. Betway: 'damaging precedent'.
Read the caseKwiff's Lewis Hamilton ad banned — the ASA said F1's star appeals to children
A Kwiff X post betting on a Hamilton weekend was banned after the ASA counted 150,000 UK under-18 Instagram followers. The 18+ badge did not save it.
Read the caseCantine Leonardo da Vinci — the Tuscan wine cooperative the state liquidated
€13.4M of debt against €5.5M in assets, 11 injunctions, and a cooperative that waived its defence. The ministry liquidated it in February 2026.
Read the caseSan Miguel spent $1B on global expansion — and ended up back where it started
Philippines' largest brewer committed $1B to a five-year global push. By 1997 its overseas operations were still in the red and domestic profits had collapsed.
Read the caseTerre Cortesi Moncaro — Marche's wine giant collapsed after paying €8.75M for Villa Medoro
612 member growers, 10M bottles a year, €25M of debt and a board ousted. The largest winery in Marche entered bankruptcy protection in 2024.
Read the caseCoca-Cola Japan's campaign song came with a 'Columbus' video — pulled in a day
A Coke Studio song got a music video of band members as Columbus and Napoleon teaching 'apes' Western culture. Universal pulled it; Coca-Cola pulled the ads.
Read the caseL'Oréal's airbrushed Julia Roberts ad was banned — the retouching had gone too far
The ASA banned Lancôme and Maybelline ads for airbrushing it could not substantiate — retouching that crossed from art into misleading advertising.
Read the caseParade raised $40M to reinvent underwear — it shut down in 6 years
Parade, the Instagram-native DTC underwear brand, raised over $40M in VC funding and peaked at $10M in revenue — then shuttered in 2025.
Read the caseYouthforia went viral for the wrong shade — one TikTok killed the brand
Youthforia promised inclusive beauty — then a viral TikTok called its darkest foundation shade 'tar in a bottle' and the brand shut down 4 months later.
Read the caseSony killed the $10B Zee merger after two years over who would run it
A deal that would have made India's biggest media company collapsed on January 22 2024 — a SEBI probe and a leadership fight broke the trust first.
Read the caseMajid Al Futtaim's homegrown THAT Concept Store closed five years after opening
Majid Al Futtaim's first homegrown multibrand store closed in 2026 — its own $1.3B mall redevelopment and a tourism crash ended the experiment.
Read the caseChelsea sacked Mutu for a positive test, then fought five years to claw the fee back
A failed test cost Mutu his Chelsea career; Chelsea lost the £15.8M transfer, won €17.2M damages from CAS, and still came out behind.
Read the caseJapan's 'deaf Beethoven' was a ghostwritten brand — and the label paid for believing it
A composer marketed as a deaf genius had not written a note since 1996; the label stopped sales, NHK apologised and the tour promoter sued for ¥61M.
Read the casePayPal bought Honey for $4B — then the coupon app stole creators' affiliate commissions
MegaLag's December 2024 video showed Honey crediting itself for sales it never generated; ~8M users left and two class actions followed
Read the caseAeluna Beauty, an influencer-founded Indonesian makeup brand, closed in December 2024
A lip-oil brand founded by two influencers shut down after its investor backing dried up in Indonesia's 'Local Brand Winter'.
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