Ads Aim at Warming Californians Up to Lottery

The television commercial opens with a scene of rural splendor.

A soft-eyed golden retriever trots down a rustic road with his master. They approach a general store. The sun is glistening in the trees. The dog curls up on the front stoop, panting contentedly, while the store owner opens the mail. The music swells. A sweet country day begins.

They’re hawking bran cereal? Dog food? No, it’s the California lottery, out to get your gambling dollars in a “warm . . . comfortable” way.

With the urgency of the last days of a political campaign, the lottery is launching a multimillion-dollar advertising foray into every California media market, trying to make Golden Staters “feel good” about the lottery in advance of the first instant scratch-off game beginning Oct. 3.

The target is every man and woman in California 18 years old and older.

The homespun scenes of man and dog “have a certain warmth,” said Charles L. Rubner of Needham Harper Worldwide, the agency that landed the $22-million contract to advertise the lottery during its first year. “We want Californians to feel comfortable about the lottery. We want them to feel it is an acceptable part of everyday life. We want them to say, ‘Hey, that’s my lottery!’ ”

The scheme is simple. Rubner says that the better people feel about the games, the more they will spend playing them.

“We surveyed 1,050 adults around the state . . . and found out that when they understood the lottery, they felt better and were more likely to participate,” the adman said.

The tail-wagging dog commercial, which will begin on television Thursday in peak viewing hours between 6 and 11:30 p.m., also features a yellow school bus wending its way down the country lane, a folksy reminder that about 34% of lottery revenues will go to public education.

“Our schools win, too,” is a common phrase repeated in this and other lottery ads, along with, “It’s a good feeling for a lot of good reasons.”

“If there’s continuity, there’s more bang for the buck,” Rubner explained.

Nowhere do the commercials mention that out of 400,080,000 tickets to be sold in the first six-week game, there will be only 45,135,000 money winners--40 million of them for $2--while there will be 354,945,000 losers.

And there is no hint that the new lottery is one of the biggest gambling operations in the nation.

“That’s because it’s not gambling,” Rubner said. “It’s what I call ‘fun for a buck.’ ”

The start-up ad campaign also includes large newspaper spreads (in Spanish and English, with some plans for ads in Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Tagalog and Vietnamese), as well as one-minute radio spots aimed at morning and evening “drive time” listeners. “Come on and play our lottery; the fun will now begin,” voices sing on the radio spot. “We’re going to make a better state; our schools are going to win.”

One other TV commercial will be aired before the beginning of the lottery--a slick and quick 10-second production in which a silhouette of California dissolves into a big orange “L,” the symbol of the new games. “Living in the Golden State is going to be a lot more exciting!” a voice exclaims.

Ads ‘Don’t Shout’

Rubner contends that California’s ads “speak to people but don’t shout.” He said they are “classier than other states,” where lotteries have resorted to little wads of marching money and lightning bolts striking doubting lottery players in the head. The California lottery’s first newspaper ads depict hands at work scratching off a $1 lottery ticket. Bared on the ticket are a $100 square, two $1,000 squares and two $5,000 squares. The sixth square is still covered. “Win up to $5,000 instantly in the lottery’s first game,” a headline teases.