Cannes Lions

NY LOTTERY

DDB NEW YORK / NY LOTTERY / 2013

Awards:

1 Silver Cannes Lions
Case Film
Case Film
Case Film
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Overview

Entries

Credits

OVERVIEW

Description

When you win New York Powerballs jackpot youre more than just wealthy, youre the kind of rich that hires Andy Richter and a team of comedy writers to sit in a room all day feeding you jokes through an earpiece, “Yeah, that kind of rich.”

Execution

The crux of the story revolves around our two Thumb Wrestlers. One guy is small and slight while the other guy is larger and burlier: classic archetypes in their size and shape and demeanor.

The small and slight gentleman is our hero, a true underdog but in a war of thumbs he has finally found his niche. His beefy opponent plays the role of the confident bully.

The supporting cast all play an important role to help build the arch of the story. There’s the mousey woman in the corner reading; she secretly likes our hero and she must be able to transform herself into a confident vixen, as her flirtations grow with each of our hero’s victories. A male coworker, who needs to make this place of business feel mundane and boring, accompanies her. He must also convey to the viewer that the thumb war is the most exciting thing that will happen to him today.

The next wave of cast members is the other coworkers; again conveying the mundaneness of their jobs and the excitement they have for our hero.

Heightening the gravity of the victory, we casted for two classic sportscasters with their cameraman.

Then we threw in some cheerleaders but not NFL style. We went decidedly toward Canadian high school football cheerleaders.

And to add to our bully’s humiliation we brought in two Men In Black characters to drag him out him out of the break room, after losing. {If you look closely, in the following scene there’s a puff of smoke and we turn the bully into a turtle. We did not cast for a real turtle though.}

And for the crescendo we added dancers modeled after the Solid Gold Dancers from a classic show from the 80s, titled “Solid Gold.”

Added bonus, we also casted the world’s cutest puppy for the ending.

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