Published on 9th March 2016 by Becky Mosley

The UK National Lottery recently launched its new ‘No Chance’ campaign, though one of the campaign’s ads has caused quite a bit of controversy for being ‘tasteless’ and ‘disrespectful’.

Online Audience

The ‘No Chance’ campaign consists of a series of six short films designed for the online audience. These films were created to promote its GameStore sub-brand of instant win games to both regular Lottery players and those who don’t play that regularly.The 30-second video that’s upset quite a lot of people was shown on Facebook and hundreds of people complained to Camelot, the company that owns the UK National Lottery.

‘Missing Cat’

The ad in question shows an upset women putting up ‘missing cat’ leaflets beside the A202, a particularly busy London road. The woman places a kiss on the photo of her lost cat as cars zoom by. The video description says: ‘Hoping your missing cat will turn up when you live next to the A202? No chance!’ It continues: ‘But try GameStore for a 1 in 4 chance of winning. #BetterChances.’Lots of the people who complained were people who have had their pet cats go missing. This isn’t the first time the National Lottery has come under fire: a lot of people weren’t happy with the National Lottery following its decision to increase the number of balls from 49 to 59, thereby trebling the odds of matching all six balls.

Hoping To Woo Back Players

The series of six ads is part of Camelot’s attempt to woo players back to the National Lottery following the decision to increase the number of balls, which caused many to stop playing. While this missing cat ad has got people talking – albeit for the reasons – it could cause even more people to stop playing. The National Lottery has since apologised for the ad, stating that it was meant to be tongue-in-cheek and wasn’t created to offend anyone.