Launch of David Beckham ad campaign axed by Venetian Macao just 48 hours before roll-out

The launch of a high-profile global advertising campaign for Macau’s biggest casino operator which was due to star David Beckham has been scrapped just 48-hours before its planned roll-out amid turmoil at the top of the company and an unprecedented slump in the fortunes of the world’s biggest gaming hub.

Two days before the high-profile launch of their “never settle” campaign – widely promoted on both traditional and new media platforms as having at its centrepiece a movie starring a mystery “world famous celebrity icon” – the Venetian Macao on Tuesday announced that Thursday’s launch event and the campaign had been “postponed until further notice”.

The one-line press release did not identify the celebrity but the South China Morning Post has confirmed that it is former Manchester United, Real Madrid and England soccer superstar Beckham who was appointed ambassador for Las Vegas Sands to promote its casinos in Macau and Singapore in November 2013.

The postponement notice comes as the former Portuguese enclave’s gaming industry suffers from a major revenue slump as a result of the combined effects of President Xi Jinping’s no holds barred anti-corruption drive and a slowdown in mainland China’s economy.

It also comes amid a series of top-level corporate changes and a long-running legal dispute involving a former top executive at the company’s parent operation, Sands China.

The campaign was due to be rolled out on Thursday with a senior executive from Las Vegas Sands, Sands China’s parent company, flying in for the event. The Venetian Macao’s Twitter account had been anticipating the television commercial with a ten-day countdown complete with a video teaser.