The UK National Lottery has been going strong for over 20 years and during that time they’ve
played around with their advertising a lot.
In our top 5 list of the funniest National Lottery ads, we’ll have a look at the times
they lightened up and actually made us laugh.
“PLEASE NOT THEM” AD SERIES
In their latest ad campaign, the National Lottery have bought together some of the best
b-listers from British TV and given them the Extras treatment.
The premise is simple, play the lottery and win the money so they can’t.
They show us a pretty large group of celebs playing caricature versions of themselves
saying what they’d do with all that money.
James Blunt would build a mirror that whines or sings at you all day long.
Laurence Llewelyn Bowen would jazz up boring monuments like Stonehenge
and Katie Price would set up a 24 hour tv show dedicated to herself.
Although, we’re actually not really sure how much of a joke that last one is.
RABBIT LEGEND
This Rabbit Legend ad campaign came out this year for the Irish branch of the national
lottery, and is by far both the weirdest and hilarious ad they’ve ever made.
The idea having a load of guys with really strong Irish accents yelling “legend”
at a guy playing the lottery.
It’s perfect.
There’s even some very odd behind the scenes skits of those rabbits getting ready for the
ad, which shows that a good idea, is a good idea forever.
“1 IN 4 CHANCE” AD SERIES
In this lighthearted series of ads, the National Lottery tried to convince us that we’d have
a better chance of winning on their scratch cards than getting anything done in real life.
Those real life failures would include getting IT support, getting saved from down a well
or finding a lost cat, a version of the ad that attracted a surprising amount of controversy
when it aired.
It’s interesting that people are more worried about a lost cat than a man literally trapped
at the bottom of a well, so maybe the National Lottery was right to be cynical about all
of us.
“IT COULD BE YOU” AD SERIES
These are a real blast from the past.
Back in the lottery’s early days, they dipped their toe into comedy waters, before abandoning
the idea for many years.
In these early ads from 1994, their mascot was a giant golden hand, flying across the
sky and telling people that “it could be you”.
In their excitement they yell out the phrase “it’s me”, usually having just been
accused of something like stealing a woman's clothes.
These adverts are particularly interesting, because an added bonus of having the ad explain
to us how to play the lottery, something that’s just second nature today.
FIRST THING YOU’D DO
The first thing you’d do advert is a beautiful demonstration of what the National Lottery
think about their players.
What do you do when you win?
Simple abandon all your responsibilities and run away to Barbados of course.
Simple as.
We do hope that baby’s going to be okay though.
That’s it for this week’s top 5, join us next week for even more brilliant guides,
best of the months and of course, hilarious top 5s.
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We’ll be seeing see you again same time, next week.