Mayor Criticised For New Year’s Eve Sponsorship Deal

By · December 22, 2010 at 9:23 am · 11 Comments · Latest News · Report an error ·

Boris Johnson’s getting flak for accepting sponsorship from Wonga.com to fund free travel on New Year’s Eve.

Required by law to state an annual interest rate of 2,689% on its advertising, Wonga is a locally based, online lender specialising in short term loans. Labour figures, including Ken Livingstone, and pressure group Debt on the Doorstep have condemned the deal, suggesting that giving prime advertising space to this ‘tide you over’ type of high interest borrowing at the most cash strapped time of the year is irresponsible.

Boris was on LBC yesterday, defending the deal, as reported by Adam Bienkov.

As Annie Mole reminds us, past sponsors have included ING Direct, Natwest and alcoholic drink brands, all of which had their own agenda donning the ‘free travel fairy hat’ and associated ad space paying the price to get us home gratis.

Does it matter? Let us know. Are you going out on NYE? Are you likely to take advantage of free travel? Have you ever taken out one of these short term loans?

Our favourite NYE image by Tyla’75 via the Londonist Flickrpool.

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  • Dean Nicholas

    They should get rid of free travel on NYE. When you’re paying over the odds for a ticket to some dubious party at a nightclub, forking out a few quid for the tube ride home isn’t too bad. Better that having City Hall embrace treacly relationships with these predatory sponsor companies.

    • http://twitter.com/diamondgeezer diamond geezer

      I suspect TfL like having free travel on NYE, because it means they can leave all the ticket gates open and avoid confrontations with excessively drunken passengers.

      • markle

        I *think* there’s a rule that a closed gateline must be staffed. An open one doesn’t need to be staffed.

  • Anonymous

    Can’t Hugo Chavez help us out? Damn, if only Ken were still in charge.

  • Henzines

    I appreciate free travel on NYE although I rarely use it but I feel uneasy about companies such as these sponsoring it. Wonga.com not only encourages impulse, unsustainable borrowing but indirectly is also a ready source & encouragement for gambling addicts. When usual money sources run dry and addicts would ordinarily be forced to face the issue, numerous sites such as Wonga are ready & willing to lend more, no questions asked, and then start charging exorbitant interest. I wonder why City Hall agreed to this, I imagine there was more then one sponsor available?

  • http://twitter.com/kelvinj Kelvin Jones

    Yes, let’s live in a blissfully ignorant state where people don’t struggle to pay bills every month. Seriously!

    People will always have this need, so would you rather they go to a registered company that has to follow the law or to a loan shark?

    There’s nothing wrong with this kind of business, you’re all being a wee bit too precious.

  • Dave

    I don’t see the problem. The company in question is operating legally. Are City Hall really supposed to reject advertisers and sponsors based on some vague, ill-defined arbitrary moral criteria?

    Frankly, anyone who is stupid enough to take out a loan with an interest rate of 2,689% just because they saw a couple of tube adverts when they were drunk has probably already got much bigger problems to worry about.

  • Frustrated with Calculator

    I’ll avoid the whack wonga wagon and take a step back. Wonga is criticised for it’s super-huge APR rates. The problems with people getting into debt is not just APR but the total amount borrowed, which obviously depends on borrowing term.

    As wonga lends money over short periods, it’s total-amount-borrowed as a percentage of loan is actually a lot lower than mortgages; e.g. £400 over 9 days at the outrageous APR is actually 111% of the original amount. My mortgage over 30 years works out at 167%

    No I don’t work for them I just get frustrated by people criticising things they don’t understand

  • dont_knock_the_free_stuff

    So Wonga are being criticised for giving a bit of their profits back in the form of free travel?

  • http://twitter.com/Hydroxatone101 Olivia Anye

    I think this sponsorship deal illustrates the ideology and outlook of the conservative party in general. I doubt a labour government would accept a sponsorship deal from a company that is nothing but a loan shark disguised as a credible financial organisation. Companies like this profit from the poor masses who buy into the idea of quick gains……I don’t think any of them public schoolboy types have probably ever experienced being at the rough end of an organisation like this hence their more or less approval of this one.

    • Dave

      So TFL are supposed to accept/reject advertisers/sponsors based on ideological or party-political criteria, are they?

      What a load of nonsense. If the company is operating legally, and meets other properly-defined advertising criteria, they have as much right to advertising or sponsorship as anyone else. It’s not TFL’s job to pass moral judgement on the ethics of their advertisers.

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