RALEIGH
The North Carolina lottery spent about $11 million in the most recent fiscal year on advertising, encouraging ticket buyers to play responsibly -- and to keep them buying more lottery tickets, a newspaper reported yesterday.
From billboards to ads featuring game-show characters and a singing chorus, the lottery spent $10.9 million in the 2009 fiscal year on television, radio ads and print ads, according to information obtained by the Raleigh News & Observer through a public-records request.
At least as far as boosting ticket sales, the lottery's director says that the money is working.
Tom Shaheen, the executive director of the N.C. Education Lottery, said that the lottery's sales in the 2009 fiscal year were up 20 percent over 2008.
"It's a presence of mind," Shaheen said, noting that a man who won a big prize from the scratch-off ticket based on Ric Flair told him that he bought a ticket because he saw the game's commercial featuring the iconic former professional wrestler.
"People don't just decide they're going to buy lottery tickets. Something has to trigger that," Shaheen said.
The lottery spent about $8 million on television and radio ads and $80,000 for a sponsorship on Fox Sports South. Some opponents say that the lottery shouldn't advertise with sporting events because children will get the message that everyone gambles.
"It just pushes that message out to a younger generation -- that gambling is normal, and it's what everybody does," said Bill Brooks, the president of the conservative N.C. Family Policy Council, which opposed the lottery.
The lottery doesn't study its ads' specific effects on consumers' behavior. That would take more money, and the lottery's advertising budget is limited by law to 1 percent of gross ticket sales.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement