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Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Camelot Offends The Bingo Association With New Advert

The Telegraph carries a story about the latest advert from National Lottery company Camelot. The ad for the new Hot Bingo scratchcard shows an old lady in a mobility cart driving past a derelict looking Bingo parlour that is locked-up and showing a closed sign. In an instant she is transformed into a winner and appears in a jazzed up cart on a beach front. Unsurprisingly, the Bingo Association are in a right lather about the claiming it both "pokes fun at" and "trivialises" the current problems in the industry.

With a small glimmer of hope that things could improve with tomorrow's budget, the message the ad sends out was always going to rankle industry workers. Whether it was malicious, as the Bingo Association claims is another thing. Personally, the whole advert smacks of marketing clichés again. Let's look at it - Camelot have no doubt spotted the recent raft of Bingo adverts on TV, and got on the bandwagon with their own Bingo themed scratchcard. They pass this over to the Marketing people to promote, and what do they do? They fall back on all the old nonsense and end up with this advert.

In fact, I'd go one step further and say I'd be amazed if the people who made the advert even realised these problems existed in the real world. Instead they've gone for the easy win. Bingo = Old Women. I've mentioned here many times the lack of imagination in the marketing world when it comes to Bingo, and this is just another example of it. The surprise that Camelot are showing at the criticism from the Bingo Association would point to the ignorance on their part. That said, you can see the why the Bingo Association should be so annoyed at this advert. if nothing else, their outrage will keep the problems with the game in the public eye.

Posted at 9:13 AM |

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