Lottery’s ‘Winbig’ falls flat

OLYMPIA – The Washington State Lottery, trying to spur holiday scratch-ticket sales, has launched a statewide ad campaign that strives to annoy its way into your memory.

The $786,000 radio, TV, Internet and print blitz features the fictitious “Mr. Winbig,” an animated character who the Lottery says is supposed to be endearingly obnoxious.

“He seems like a drunken, alcoholic comedian,” said Spokane counselor Phil Eager.

Here Mr. Winbig is, smoking a ham like a cigarette. There he is, slurring and forgetting the words to Jingle Bells. Here he is again, lisping and advising you not to try to make pants out of candy canes – whatever that means. Sometimes, he sounds like a meth addict, with stream-of-consciousness babbling. Other times, he seems to be hallucinating.

“Leave me alone, you freaky monkey! I know tai chi!” he bellows in the middle of one carol. “Slave to the bouncy ball! Slave to the bouncy ball! Must buy scratch tickets! Must buy scratch tickets! I’m just a lonely chicken nugget.”

The song ends with him groaning. (Hear this for yourself at www.walottery.com.)

But Mr. Winbig is not alone in his groaning. Asked for comment on the ads, more than a dozen Spokane residents – several of whom buy scratch tickets as stocking-stuffers – called the ads bizarre and moronic. Many said they change the channel or mute the television when Mr. Winbig makes his appearance.

“He’s the guy at the office Christmas party that the men want to punch and the women cross the room to avoid,” said Mead substitute teacher Shirley Olson, who finds the character creepy.

“He looks like a child molester,” she said. “I turn it off every time.”

Several compared the ads to “Say WA!” the state’s widely mocked $442,000 tourism slogan that was abruptly shelved earlier this year. “I can’t believe that our dollars are paying people to come up with this crap,” said Carol Leithead, a Colville retiree. “It’s right up there with Spuddy Buddy from Idaho.”

A spokeswoman for the lottery said that Mr. Winbig’s five-week blitz is intended to amuse people by reminding them of obnoxiously lovable relatives.

“A lot of people have a Mr. Winbig in their family, and at holidays, they maybe look forward to seeing him, and maybe not,” said lottery communications director Jacque Coe. “It’s a takeoff on that. Putting the fun back in dysfunctional family, if you will.”

The state sells millions of dollars in scratch tickets at Christmas, and in the past has offered peppermint-scented tickets as a way to tap into that holiday sentiment. Ads must be memorable to cut through the rest of the season’s advertising, Coe said.

“Mr. Winbig is standing out in a crowded marketing environment,” she said. The ads aren’t targeted toward any particular demographic other than people ages 25 to 54, she said.

The comprehensive five-week ad campaign includes Spanish-language radio ads, ads targeted at Asian and African American consumers, printable Mr. Winbig paper cutouts and an online blog.

“Wow! I am so filled with tickles that Washington’s Lottery has asked me to be their mascot for their scratching (sic) tickets,” the character says on his blog. “… I got a check for a huge amounts (sic) of money that I’m not asposed (sic) to discuss. But let’s just say it is more than $25 and less than $27 … I love you very much, Washington.”

Actually, Mr. Winbig’s creators get a lot more than $26 from the state. The ads were created by Seattle-based Publicis West, an ad agency with a three-year, $1.6-million-a-year contract to do all the state lottery’s advertising work.

“Gosh, they could have done better than that. It looks like something a bunch of high-school sophomores might have done,” said retired Northport school superintendent Neil Hutchens. “Of course, I’m speaking from the standpoint of someone who thinks the lottery is an idiot tax.”

The advertising review site adcritic.com said Mr. Winbig’s inane caroling “proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Mr. Winbig suffers from attention-deficit disorder. Not to mention an extraordinarily low IQ.”

A Publicis West spokeswoman, Carisa Fisher, said the firm would not comment for this story. She referred any questions back to lottery officials.

Becky Jones, a Spokane fitness instructor, said the lottery should focus on touting the family tradition of giving lottery tickets at Christmas. She likes to put some in her husband’s stocking and watch as he sits by the fire to scratch them off to see if he’s won anything. (So far, no.)

“My thoughts are to throw Mr. Winbig out with the trash and go (to) a more realistic, heartfelt course” with the ads, Jones said.

Coe said public reaction to the ads is no greater than on any of the lottery’s other campaigns. Opinions are running about 50-50, she said.

“A lot of people love it,” she said. “They laugh, et cetera.”

With the sender’s name redacted, she provided an e-mail sent by one radio listener to lottery headquarters.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever laughed that hard at an advertisement in my life,” the woman wrote. “… I just wanted you to know how much this guy is brightening my days. If I could get a Mr. Winsbig (sic) doll for my office, I would. Keep up the great work!”

Coe said the lottery pays close attention to consumer reaction.

“We’re listening to folks. We always do,” she said. “And we take those (comments) into account when developing future campaigns.

“Advertising is subjective,” she said. “What one person finds amusing, another does not. We hope that people will enjoy Mr. Winbig.

“And if they don’t like him, well, he may only be around until Christmas Eve.”