Paddy Power said the stunt, timed to coincide with the run-up to the World Cup football in Brazil, was intended to highlight the issue of deforestation.
‘We got some design hipsters to create, from scratch, a 3-D model of the rainforest [using Modo computer software] 85km outside Manaus,’ admitted Paddy Power on its website.
‘In painstaking detail, we looked at the type of tree, topography, where the light should be at each time of day and even the reflection of the forest in the window of our imaginery helicopter.
‘There was no helicopter. In fact, we didn’t even set foot in Brazil.’
The bookmaker said its ‘mischievous’ #Shavetherainforest stunt helped put the issue of deforestation into the spotlight.
‘Greenpeace told us that in the Amazon an area the size of 122 football pitches is chopped down every 90 minutes, which is shocking.’
