Paddy Power Irish Billboard Pokes Fun At Trump with “Is Orange the New Black?” Ad

Posted on: September 6, 2016, 02:00h. 

Last updated on: September 6, 2016, 12:51h.

Casino.org Staff Writer Read More

Expertise: Commercial Gaming.

A new Paddy Power billboard ad campaign in Ireland might be raising some eyebrows, but there’s nothing new in that. The Irish bookmaker famously goes where no other company would dare, but its latest effort is perhaps the most uncomfortably smirk-stifling yet.

Offering odds on one of the candidates running for president of the United States, Paddy Power’s new billboard ad bears images of presidential GOP hopeful Donald Trump alongside Barack Obama, while asking if “Orange is the new black?,” a play on the popular Netflix TV series about women in a minimum-security federal prison who wear orange jumpsuits.

The bookmaker manages to mock on our squeamishness at referencing race and skin color, while lampooning the famously orange-faced Trump. While the Republican candidate appears to have softened his fake tan stance a bit over the past few months, he’s been known to go full-throttle tangerine in the past.

Tangerine Dream

Paddy Power installed the billboard in Dublin over the weekend, in preparation for the forthcoming exhibition football game between Boston College and Georgia Tech, hoping to draw the interest of visiting Americans.

“With the gridiron attracting hordes of American visitors we thought we’d give them a little insight into how their Republican candidate is faring in the betting,” said a spokesman for Paddy Power. “Despite some of Trump’s comments being more ill-advised than his hair, the billionaire is still very much in the race and there is a realistic chance that orange may be the new black.”

To be honest, we never did we think we would live to see the first orange president of the United States, but what odds are Paddy Power giving The Donald of making history now?

Odds on Donald

At 3/1 against, Paddy Power believes there is a 25 percent chance of Trump making it to the White House, while Hillary Clinton remains the 4/11 favorite. Paddy Power has said that should Trump win the election, its customers are set to make around €1 million ($1.12 million), a figure that’s expected to double in the coming months.

But while bookmakers are notoriously good at predicting the outcome of political events, we’re not sure it applies here. In the US, betting on politics is illegal. And the vast majority of Paddy Power’s customers are British or Irish citizens, and thus will not be voting.

Bearing that in mind, Paddy Power’s odds do not offer a cross-section of the opinions of American voters in any way, shape, or form. It’s simply that more money in the UK has been placed on Clinton. And with the polls results in the US tightening between the two candidates, they could yet be painting the White House a deep shade of apricot come November 8.