In being completely appalled by this attitude to Oscar Pitorius' trial?

[perfectstorm]

So Paddy Power have decided to run a poster campaign and national media ad campaign on whether Oscar Pitorius is convicted of killing his girlfriend, complete with an image of him as an Oscar award, and the slogan " "It's Oscar Time. Money Back If He Walks." Their blog says, "Global media attention, bar-stool conversation and pillow talk will shift from the Oscars on Sunday night to Oscar on Monday when the Blade Runner straps on his prosthetic limbs for the long walk to the high court."

I don't know if it was an accident or whether he murdered her, but does it actually matter? A young woman is dead, this is a murder trial, and they think it's casual entertainment people can take a flutter on, akin to the sodding Oscars.

Are they run by David Brent?

[WorraLiberty]

Jesus effin Christ you are so NBU!

How awful for anyone who knew her.

[JanineStHubbins]

YANBU. Saw it on Twitter, it's disgraceful on all sorts of levels. I bet they think they're being really clever with the 'if he walks' bit.

[PollyCazaletWannabe]

God, that's horrific.

[WorraLiberty]

Oh god yeah, I didn't even think about the if he walks 'pun'.

[BrownSauceSandwich]

Loathsome.

[Goldmandra]

A very good argument for keeping cameras out of court rooms IMO

[lazyhound444]

That's disgusting. The poor girl's family have really been through the mill on this. It's been handled so badly by the South African justice system and the global media machine. Now they have a dimwitted bookmaker's idea of marketing to contend with.

[AgentZigzag]

That's pretty low, but then how many people will be watching the trial? Isn't that just making entertainment of it?

Paddy Power are hardly what you'd call role models either.

I wonder what kind of standards they have to keep to when advertising? Maybe this would be just classed as bad taste rather than an outrage to public decency kind of thing.

[TheReluctantCountess]

Extremely bad taste.

[perfectstorm]

Someone posted a link on Facebook and I actually assumed it was a viral joke, it was so horrible. I googled, expecting to be able to go, "yeah, that's a fake..." and the thing was real.

[Alisvolatpropiis]

Yanbu!

That's utterly vile.

[IamInvisible]

YANBU.

That is disgusting beyond words.

[Jbck]

Surely there is someone customers or not can complain to, that is in the worst possible taste.

[BadgersNadgers]

That just beggars belief.

[squoosh]

Disgusting.

Her death has been reduced to a money making, punning, joke fest.

[DidoTheDodo]

I'm horrified by this. Appalling.

[Nomama]

Woah! Is that real?

It is! OMG. Disgusting.

[JaneRizzoli]

I saw the advert in the Irish Sunday Independent earlier today and was appalled.

[perfectstorm]

My friend on Facebook just posted a link to a petition to challenge their doing this, and asking that they apologise via donating to a domestic abuse charity.

TBH it feels like pissing in the wind a bit... but at least it's something. A way to register how horrible this is. It's like they think it's a computer game or something, not a real event.

[PrivateBenjamin]

That's absolutely unbelievable. I have just signed. Sickening that they'd make an entertainment spectacle from the death of a young woman.

[bigtimerush]

That's bloody awful

Mind you, what odds are they offering for him walking.. Could be worth a few quid.

[FrankelInFoal]

That's Paddy Power for you, they're hardly the most sensitive of companies. They've been fined several times for their "guerrilla marketing" campaigns in horse racing circles.

[AgentZigzag]

I've just had a look at what else they've done, and

[perfectstorm]

I don't know anything about Paddy Power - on the evidence here, I'm relieved to hear it.

Thanks for signing, PrivateB. I doubt it'll achieve much, but it's good to know how many people are also horrified by this. It's nauseating. Like one of those trolls on Facebook memorial pages has been handed an advertising budget.

[chocolatemademefat]

Boak!