Poker Site Ad Campaign Draws On Famed Filmmaker

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The ads capture the subtle gestures of card-table truth, slow-motion sequences of chips thrown into the pot, extreme close-ups on players’ eyes, and the look on a “poker face” when his opponent’s hand is revealed.

The goal of the TV commercials is to publicize the Web site FullTiltPoker.com. They were produced by Culver City ad agency Wongdoody and directed by Errol Morris, best known for his creative documentaries such as “A Brief History of Time,” about physicist Stephen Hawking, and “The Fog of War,” about the Vietnam-era Defense Secretary Robert McNamara.

But the director, whose newest film is “Standard Operating Procedure,” about the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, has added a dimension to his oeuvre with the poker spots.

“It’s the mental process of poker,” said Tracy Wong, chairman of Wongdoody. “The invisible game inside the pro’s mind is what really makes the game interesting.”

WongDoody, with 153 employees and annual billings of $155 million, has had the Full Tilt account since 2005. The agency’s other clients include Expedia, Health Net, T-Mobile and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

FullTilt’s brand message is that it’s a site where professional level gamblers can get games going and make real-money wagers on them. There is also a sister site for free play. FullTilt started in Los Angeles with the backing of million-dollar players such as Howard Lederer, Gus Hansen and Carlos “Matador” Mortensen. The pros also promote the site and participate as actors in the TV ads. FullTilt moved to Ireland in 2006 after tighter restrictions for Internet gambling sites were passed in the United States.

The TV commercials will break this month on NBC, ESPN and Fox’s cable channels. There’s no dialogue, just voice-over narrative thus making translations easy for runs in Europe, Australia, Latin America, South Africa and Southeast Asia. A print campaign in poker magazines will accompany the TV exposure.

The 10 commercials directed by Morris certainly defy the wisdom of legendary adman David Ogilvy, who believed that “a good advertisement is one which sells the product without drawing attention to itself.”

Wong said Morris got free rein on how to illustrate the concept.

“On most commercials you have a lot of input on the set between the client, agency and director,” he said. “But with an artist like this, you have some discussion, give him the script and let him go.”

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