Four people are seated at a booth in a diner. The camera focuses on one of the guys, who is scratching the silver coating off a lottery ticket. Picking up the ticket, he blows the silver shavings off—and onto a nearby omelet, the centerpiece of a hearty breakfast that his buddy was about to ingest.
"You got that stuff all over my food," protests the buddy, who had been looking forward to his meal.
The lotto-player is quick to defend himself and the non-toxicity of the silver slivers. "You can still eat that," he relates. Examining the ticket, he points out, "Look, nowhere on here does it say, ‘Do not eat. ‘ "
"Oh, thanks. That’s very reassuring," replies his seat mate, who now understandably has a somewhat curbed appetite. Yet friendship seems to have won out because the two men are still seated next to each other, without having thrown any punches.
We cut away from the diner to see a supered message fill the screen—"Reminder: Be courteous when you scratch."
The spot then returns to the diner, where the lotto player reaches over, grabs a bite from his pal’s omelet, and smirks. Indeed, silver shavings can be decorative condiments, though hardly a threat to parsley.
This :30 for the Oregon Lottery concludes with its logo—a pair of crossed fingers for good luck—accompanied by the slogan, "Playtime." Titled "Silver Stuff," it is one of four spots in a "Playtime" campaign created by Portland agency Moffatt/Rosenthal. The other commercials are similarly offbeat, showing lotto players at their quirky best and worst.
In "Sasquatch," for example, a woman drives her car through the mountains while scratching a lotto ticket. Her eyes dart between the prize—at least the potential lotto payoff—and the road. Suddenly she slams on the brakes, but it’s too late—she’s already hit something large and furry. At first fleeting glance, the car appears to have struck some familiar wild animal. But the camera reveals the victim to be a hairy monster, à la Big Foot or Sasquatch. A parting super offers a safety tip—"Scratch. Just don’t scratch and drive"—then the camera reveals the anxious woman performing CPR on her victim.
The Moffatt/Rosenthal creative team consisted of creative director Rob Rosenthal, associate creative director/art director Marc Sobier, associate creative director/copywriter Hart Rusen, art director Michael Butterworth and freelance producer Jay Howard.
Jonathan David of bicoastal Morton Jankel Zander (MJZ) directed the quartet of TV spots, backed by executive producers David Zander and Jeff Scruton. Line producer was Buzzy Cancilla. The campaign was shot by DP Ron Fortunato.
The spots were edited by Peter Wiedensmith and Corky Devault of Portland-based Joint. Online editor was Michael Nicholas of Downstream Digital, Portland. Colorist was Mike Cosola of The Digital Lab, Venice, Calif. Audio mixer was Eric Stolberg of Digital One, Portland. Graphics/end logo work was done by Feel Good Anyway, Portland.
Jason Johnson and Michael Anastasi of stimmüng, Santa Monica, served as music composer and sound designer, respectively.
