An unwritten rule of adverts for betting companies is that they need to be as facile as possible. Whether it’s Paul Kaye on a pogo stick or Ray Winstone doing a bad impression of Ray Winstone, they have to be silly because the thing they’re trying to sell is deadly serious. They want you to think: “No need to worry too much about the consequences of putting little Timmy’s lunch money on a horse called Bum Tits because, look, Carlton Palmer’s sitting in that guy’s bath. Hahaha!” But with the new advert for online casino BGO we might have reached the apotheosis of the genre. It don’t even try to use current pop culture figures, instead opting for people whose autobiography you’d find in a bargain basket at MVC next to a MiniDisc of the Crazy Frog.
It looks like the fever dream of Paul Ross. We open on Verne Troyer (AKA Mini-Me in Austin Powers) as he returns from holiday to find, to his horror, that everything in his casino has turned pink. What could possibly have happened? Has a gigantic brain tumour warped his vision? No, it’s worse. It’s Paris Hilton. She’s assumed control of the casino and Verne can’t take any more and begins to scream. But wait, it’s OK. It was all a dream and he’s sitting in his brown office interviewing Paris for the position of assistant boss. He declines to employ her.
Leaving aside the sexism of not hiring a girl because they’ll turn everything pink, this advert could actually serve a good purpose. It’s so dated and obnoxious, and so obviously cooked up in a Costa by an adman on a comedown, that it feels like it just might be the last of its kind. But I wouldn’t bet on it.
