Winning the lottery doesn't just mean you can live that gaudy and gilded lifestyle you've always wanted. It means you'll finally have time for all that super-important charity work you've been missing. Like running through the park with a gaggle of ridiculous dogs.
A new ad for the New York Lottery from McCann New York offers a slow-motion look at an afternoon in the life of a fictional man who is free to volunteer with rescue animals—thanks to the $1,000-a-day prize of the Cash4Life game.
It's a relatively fresh angle for a lottery ad, when compared to marketing clichés about being able to afford absurd extravagances—like, say, hiring Cyndi Lauper for a private house concert (a New York Lottery campaign from a few years back, under a previous agency).
But McCann and director Derek Cianfrance of Radical Media haven't abandoned the carefree humor that's also a defining characteristic of the genre, and usually helps to gloss over the seedier realities of long-shot gambling apparatus—even if the promised reward, in this case, is illustrated in spiritual rather than material terms.
It's also consistent with the pseudo-moralistic posturing of McCann's earlier work for the brand, which cleverly skewered the absurd habits—dead bat collecting, fine wine bathing—of fantastical wealthy eccentrics, under the tagline "You'd make a better rich person." Here, that argument is implicit.
"I'd spend more time volunteering," reads a quote from a Brooklynite answering what he'd do if he won—ostensibly the inspiration for the entire scene. But the spot is almost too careful not to frame doing good as a chore. Instead, it's clearly still about self-gratification—because never having to work again is a lighthearted affair, and not many people are rolling the dice so they can fantasize about the freedom to lead a life defined by quiet, saintly self-sacrifice. (Joining a monastery would be a surer bet.)
Then again, Spain proved last year that lottery ads can be heartfelt, too—so long as they're shameless enough.
CREDITS
Client: New York Lottery
Agency: McCann NY
North American Chief Creative Officer: Eric Silver
Co-Chief Creative Officers: Sean Bryan & Tom Murphy
Executive Creative Director: Mat Bisher
Executive Creative Director: Dan Donovan
Creative Director: Geoff Bentz
Creative Director: Nic Howell
Chief Production Officer: Nathy Aviram
Senior Producer: Chance Bassett
Executive Integrated Music Producer: Eric Johnson
Music Producer: Dan Gross
Executive Account Director: Scot Beck
Account Director: Caroline Fuller
Account Executive: Alesy Iturrey
Executive Strategy Director: Mike Medeiros
Strategy Director: Laura Frank
Production Company: Radical Media
Director: Derek Cianfrance
Radical Media Executive Producer: Gregg Carlesimo
Line Producer: Alex Orlovsky
DP: Bob Yeoman
Editorial Company - MackCut
Editor: Ian Mackenzie
Post Producer: Gina Pagano
Colorist: Tom Poole
Special Effects Company: Schmidigital
Music
"Give Back For Life" – Future Perfect
"Have Fun For Life" – Nylon
