Animated banners online annoy me. I can just about cope with one on a page, but when bombarded with several like at once, as you are on many previously very user-friendly sites (Digital Spy being a case in point), I tend to get somewhat het up.

Imagine, then, my amusement at discovering this gem of an animating banner at the top of one page on a website which shall remain nameless:

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Edit: Unfortunately, legal eagles at The National Lottery have insisted that I remove the image that previously appeared here. The image contained a picture of a clearly broken banner, cyclicing between text saying “This null it’s an…” and “estimated jackpot of £0 million”. I’m sorry that I’ve had to spoil your fun! (01/09/2006)
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The banner animated between those four images, though each image was considerably larger than as reproduced above.

It’s certainly an original marketing strategy, but I’m not sure advertising the most likely payout will be terribly successful. Slight improvement over those awful Billy Connelly lottery ads from a couple of years back, though.

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An interesting marketing strategy for sure. Not sure it would appeal to those hoping to “win it big”, but there you go.

It could be you!, has a whole new meaning now.

» This comment was received at 02:29 on 31 July 06

Thanks for the comment and the link from your site, Jon. Glad it amused you too!

» This comment was received at 09:37 on 31 July 06

My apologies for the flashing banner on the right there SJ. It would’nt be a gambling related site without it..

Cheers, Jon.

» This comment was received at 20:56 on 31 July 06

This post has been referenced by another on this site:
sjhoward.co.uk » Complaints and ethics

[...] First of all, lawyers from The National Lottery have been in touch to insist that I remove their copyrighted logo from a post from a couple of months ago. I think I was probably on the right side of the law, having published in a reporting context something which was (or so it appeared) presented by The National Lottery. The lawyers argue that the banner was a fake, and defamatory to their client. Unfortunately, I neglected to keep details of the original site to refer them to in order to confirm that the banner wasn’t faked, and so I complied with their request and removed the logo from the server, and replaced it with a description. [...]

» This pingback was received at 00:53 on 03 September 06

The lawyers from the National Lottery insisted the banner be removed?

The general idea is these lawyers pick on the decent folk. Now it has been known for copyright theives to take an image, upload it on various “free webhosts” and link to said image to their hearts content.

I thought the image was funny, no more, no less. The lottery has a captured audience by law. Is apparently not gambling. But they still waffle on about hurting the brand.

Jokers, with no sense of humour.

Cheers, Jon.

» This comment was received at 11:40 on 22 September 06

I absolutely agree with you, Jon. I don’t think the banner was in any way defamatory, and certainly wouldn’t encourage people against entering the Lotto. But, hey, I’m no legal eagle, so I guess it’ll just have to stay consigned to history. Thanks for the support in your blog post, too

» This comment was received at 10:59 on 23 September 06

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