The latest TV ad for Colorado Lottery drops the pretense of fun in favor of selling hope.
As in, you’re hopelessly stuck in your pointless little existence unless you “Break free” by winning Powerball.
The “Don’t Forget to Play” tag adds to the loathing, implying that if you don’t win it’s because you screwed up.
The ad follows a sad-looking white-collar worker trudging through another dreary day, a huge chain shackled to his ankle. Before eating his little peanut butter sandwich alone he buys a Powerball ticket. That night a big red ball falls from the sky onto his little weed-infested lawn, breaking him free. He smiles.
Hey. Loser. Don’t forget to play.
We all benefit from lottery revenues. But it’s cruel for a state with as much recession-induced bleakness as Colorado to tell working people that gambling on a multi-million-to-one shot is their way out of it.
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