By Robert Goldrich

You wouldn’t call this crew for your home improvement needs. But it’s comforting to know that these folks are contributing in other ways to build community–or as the tagline says, helping communities to build.

We open on a woman wearing a hard hat and wielding a hammer. She looks the part of a construction worker. But looks are deceiving, at least for a moment until we see that she’s trying to hammer a bolt into a wood plank. The woman doesn’t know a bolt from a nail, which sets the bar in terms of what we should expect from her construction crew colleagues.

Next up is a welder. The only problem is that instead of metal, the blowtorch is being applied to a building’s wooden framework. The wood is set ablaze as the oblivious welder moves onto to kindle the next disaster.

    Then we see a man driving a large cement mixer truck. He’s driving the vehicle through a parking lot. Unfortunately, the turrets are sticking out the back of the truck, spilling cement mix over the parked cars, setting off their alarms. Again, oblivious is the appropriate adjective as the man drives on, paying no attention to the havoc pouring off the back of his truck.

A voiceover then provides some context to this construction run amuck: “Every year, millions of Washington Lottery players help with school construction throughout the state.”

The voiceover continues, “Thankfully, their contribution is purely financial,” as we see the welder trying to fan away the smoke rising from the torched wood.

A supered message appears, which reads, “Lottery ticket sales help communities build schools.”

An end tag carries the Washington State Lottery logo, accompanied by the slogan, “It’s good to play.”

Titled “Welder,” the spot is one of three in a Washington Lottery campaign directed by Eric King of bicoastal Headquarters for Publicis In The West, Seattle. The other two similarly themed spots are “Steamroller” and “Sander”; they too show construction workers being anything but constructive.

Tom Mooney and Scott Flor executive produced for Headquarters; line producer was Darrin Ball. The DP was Steve Chivers. Production designer was Chris Goodmanson.

The agency team consisted of president/executive creative director Bob Moore, senior VP/creative director Todd Grant; senior VPs/group creative directors Robert Rich and Gethin Stout; copywriter Joe Gerlitz; art director Greg Wyatt; senior VP/director of broadcast Derek Ruddy; and producer Mary Ellen Farrar.

The spots were edited by Johnna Turiano of Slice Editorial, Seattle, with Molly Woodruff serving as executive producer for the company. Online editor was Troy Morrison of Flying Spot, Seattle. Jeff Tillotson of Flying Spot was the colorist, with Kellie Graces producing. Audio mixer/sound designer was Vince Werner of Clatter & Din, Seattle. Kris Dangla produced for Clatter & Din.

    The principal actors were Carrie Nicholson, Vini Kanal and Wilson McKay.

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