It all looks so good on TV. Fun, fun, fun.
The latest lottery commercial to catch our attention features a guy in a helicopter playing hide and seek with a guy in a boat. Another set of commercials, should you be lucky and win $1,000 per week “Cash for Life,” shows a couple enjoying rock concerts one week and other fun stuff other weeks. With that kind of cash flow, it would be all about the fun.
For many people purchasing a lottery ticket or joining the office pool is a chance for some day dreaming. Regularly, our staff in the lottery pool will joke about retiring should they hit the big one.
Nobody has gone so far as to ask for a sit-down and break the News they are leaving. Truth be told, our people are dedicated enough and decent enough we are sure they’d stick with us until the paper was out. But the joke for the boss is just part of the price of admission.
What troubled us with this recent advertising campaign though, is the absolute indulgent nature of those commercials. There was no hint of charity, no sense of sharing, no push for higher learning, just an absolute pitch for personal consumption.
Perhaps winning easy money and living life like it happens in the commercials is more reflective of reality than many of us optimistic souls might want to recognize.
