D.C. Lottery hits the jackpot with Redskins-themed ad campaign

When the D.C. Lottery and its ad agency were coming up with a new Powerball campaign, the furor over the Redskins hadn't yet boiled over. It was hardly even warm. This was back during the preseason, filled with optimism and hope and the promise of grilled tofurkey sausages and an undefeated fantasy football campaign and maybe some hot Redskins playoff action.

Which meant that no one at the lottery or at MDB Communications was thinking about Redskins ownership when they wrote the script for this 30-second spot, touting the benefit of "strength in numbers" and unity in office lottery pools. You know, how it only works if everyone participates, and how you don't participate at your own peril, and all that.

In the ad, one character -- who previously hadn't participated in his office's pool -- finally decides to join. Turns out he was tarred and feathered as part of his recruitment. This character -- the only named character in the entire spot -- is called Snyder.

Now, why is he called Snyder? Well, Cary Hatch is the president and chief executive of MDB Communications, the advertising agency for the D.C. Lottery. And she happened to marry a guy named Doug Snyder. Which is why Snyder seemed like both an inside joke for her husband and son, and a relatively inoffensive and safe name for a made-up lottery player.

"Well, we thought it was safe," Hatch told me Thursday, with a laugh.

Because after the spot was filmed, and not long before its debut (scheduled for next week), people started using that last name an awful lot around the water cooler. Folks from the agency and the lottery realized that in this particular climate, in this particular town, it was going to be hard to ignore the sight of a man named Snyder being tarred and feathered. Rather than running from the connection, the lottery decided to have some fun with it, which is why there's a huge invitation to "See Snyder get tarred & feathered" at http://www.DCLottery.com.

"We knew that the name Snyder would resonate in the D.C. market," said new media specialist Derrick Eckardt, who called the selection of that name "an absolute coincidence."

After popular sports blog The Big Lead posted the video earlier this week, it got more than 3,000 page views in 48 hours. That's considered a lot for a D.C. Lottery ad that hasn't even hit the air yet.

"Sometimes timing is everything in life, right?" joked Hatch, a native Washingtonian and longtime Redskins fan. "We never could have foreseen this. . . . We shot this commercial a month ago, prior to the meltdown. Sometimes things happen that ignite, and this would be one of them."

It's as open a season as I've ever seen around here, which is why at least a few readers have accused me of piling on this week. I'm not sure about that, but I'm dang sure that if this team was 5-2 instead of 2-5, a lot more people would be willing to forgive a ban on signage.

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said much the same in a radio interview with my colleague Mike Wise earlier this week.

"I mean, you can point to the Redskins and jump on Dan Snyder, but you can also point to 20 other teams who haven't won a Super Bowl or been to the Super Bowl and nitpick them," said Cuban, who knows a thing or two about accusations of being too young, rich and meddlesome. If the Redskins won, Cuban said, "you would hear less or talk less about Dan Snyder, and he would be the guy who transitioned, took over and did a great job."

And until then, see Snyder get tarred and feathered.

"Sorry Mr. Snyder," Hatch added, sincerely. "Sometimes these things happen."