A Deserted Small Town Is Not What It Appears in This Magical New York Lottery Ad

Playing the lottery is all about chasing a fantasy. And a new ad for the New York Lottery's Cash4Life scratch-off game offers a delightful little vignette from one man's unexpected dream. In the :60, created by McCann New York, a swing set squeaks on an abandoned playground in an unnamed small town. The streets are deserted. The lights are on inside a mysterious house, but the porch bulb flickers ominously. A car sits empty at an intersection, door open and brake lights aglow. There's a little local music shop, and a desolate downtown, with graffiti scrawled on a security gate—under another flickering light, this time fluorescent. Railroad crossing bells fire in the distance, edging their way into the suspenseful orchestral score. The camera slowly zooms in on the flashing stoplight. [kickout id="1"] Spoilers below. Suddenly, without any warning, a giant hand comes out of the sky and gently places a train on the track. The perspective cuts back to reveal a middle-aged man building a model train set. The small town, ghostly as it may have seemed, is but a toy. "I'd spend more time being a kid again," says Paul S. of Jamesville in an onscreen quote explaining the scene. It's a sweet and heartfelt sentiment. That's a contrast to most lottery ads, which tend to rely on over-the-top comedy. Even McCann's spot from the same campaign last year, for example, leaned into the sight gag of a grown man bounding gleefully—oafishly, even—through a park with a pack of dogs in slow-motion. That particular winner, it turned out, was using his free time to volunteer at a pet shelter. [kickout id="2"] [kickout id="3"] That said, the new spot, titled "Small Town" and directed by Noam Murro, also doesn't take itself too seriously. Instead, the foreboding horror-movie tone turns out to be quite innocent, if perhaps a little eccentric. That just drives home the point that if you won the lottery, you might surprise everyone with how you spent your fortune. The good news, though, is that you don't have to worry about it—because you will not win the lottery. And it's still hard not to expect Michael Keaton as Beetlejuice to pop out of the miniature ground at any moment and start gesticulating crudely. [kickout id="4"] [kickout id="5"] CREDITSClient: New York Lottery Creative Agency: McCann New YorkEric Silver, North American Chief Creative OfficerSean Bryan & Tom Murphy, McCann New York Chief Creative OfficersMat Bisher & Dan Donovan, Executive Creative DirectorsJason Ashlock & Dominick Baccollo, Creative DirectorsJohan Leandersson, Senior Art DirectorAndy Sciamanna, Senior CopywriterNathy Aviram, Chief Production OfficerChance Bassett, VP Senior ProducerEric David Johnson, SVP Executive Music ProducerDan Gross, Music ProducerNatalie Hernandez, Business ManagerScot Beck, Executive Account DirectorCaroline Fuller, VP Account DirectorMolly Vossler, Account SupervisorEllery Gitkin, Assistant Account ExecutiveCourtney Snead, Project ManagerLaura Frank, VP Strategy Director Production Company: BiscuitNoam Murro, DirectorJeff McDougall, Executive ProducerCharlotte Woodhead, Producer Editorial: Work EditorialNeil Smith, EditorTheo Mercado, Assistant EditorErica Thompson, Executive ProducerChristopher Delarenal, Producer Conform/VFX: MPC NYCamila De Biaggi, Managing DirectorElissa Norman, Senior ProducerAlvin Cruz, Creative Director/VFX SupervisorMarcus Wood, 3D/2D Lead:Renato Carone, Michael Glen, Steinar Nedrebø, Amit Shukla, Manu PS, Joslin Job Mathew, Sriram P, Suhas Bjat, R Vignesh, Priyanka Day, 2D TeamSuhas Bhat, Sindhuja B, Sravan Kumar, Sreenivasa Aditya Yanamalachintala, Elangovan Ganeshan, 3D Team Music: Future PerfectComposer: Victor MagroProducer: John Connolly Audio Mix: Phil Loeb @ Heard City Telecine: Tom Poole @ Co3 Other Agencies:Momentum – Point of SaleUM – Media

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A Deserted Small Town Is Not What It Appears in This Magical New York Lottery Ad

Ghostly suspense gives way to a simple explanation

Gabriel Beltrone

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Gabriel Beltrone