Back in April, David & Goliath and The California Lottery dropped a new campaign called "Luck Has A New Look." Lady Luck seemed a bit like a cross between cat woman and Noreen Evans chimed in, saying "It is inappropriate for any entity, especially a state-funded Commission, to promote its products through the use of violence."

Wanna see the ad? Of COURSE you do.

She slaps the guy with luck. With LUCK. And she walks away smiling because she just made some dude's day. And oh, by the way, it's not a real woman. It's a metaphor. Do we really need to get all uppity on it?

Even the Lottery Commission spokesman, Russ Lopez said it was supposed to be funny.

But the lottery is a government entity so they must abide. (Fun fact: years ago, Kidsleepy made commercials for a the lottery (in a different state) so he knows what's up with gov't entities that are hand shy.)

As you can guess, the California Lottery people kowtowed, and went ahead and pulled the ad and made a "nicer" version. If by "nicer," you mean Lady Luck um, "Blows a kiss," instead, then yes it is. It's six of one half to me, though. She's either slapping someone in an "aggressive move," or she's um, "blowing them a kiss." Is that really any better?

For the record, I didn't think the first version was controversial at all. If anything, I was more skeeved out by the fact that in both versions, Lady Luck is portrayed like a stalker in a CSI episode. I don't really want to imagine that every time I buy a scratch off card, my face is on some Polaroid hanging in someone's apartment.

Anyway, here's the neutered version. Make up your own minds. Either way it's at least a different take on the lottery than most ads in both versions.