You might remember the commercial below, but did you know that it was the Winner of Best Ad Award for 2011? Refresh your memory:

“Paddy,” was the real life wire-haired Fox Terrier who played “Wilson” in the Lotto ads. He was owned by an older person who couldn’t look after him anymore after hip surgery, and that’s when animal trainers, Caroline Girdlestone and James Delaney, found him in Auckland. What a journey “Paddy” had!

To make the Lotto ad, travel was involved, and India was chosen as the perfect destination for the journey. “Paddy” had air conditioned quarters in five-star hotel luxury,  and was kept well-watered with his own on-set hydration mixture. It almost didn’t happen, however. Taking “Paddy” to India would have meant a year of quarantine before he could come back. “You just can’t do that to a dog. We’re Lotto – that’s not the fairytale ending we want,” said Wendy Rayner, New Zealand’s head of Lottery’s marketing.  The Lotto team was going to have to find “Paddy” a new home in India. It seemed an impossible goal, but Lotteries chief executive at the time told the marketing team that his best man lived in Bangalore with his wife and three sons. Might this be “Paddy’s” new home?

After filming finished “Paddy” was escorted to Bangalore by his trainers and took to his new home (he got his very own maid). The Lotteries team was routinely sent pictures of “Paddy” who settled in and seemed very happy!

As an aside, the recipient of the winning lottery ticket at the end of the commercial is Michael Self, a teacher and South Taranaki District councillor who was already well known in Manaia. When the commercials aired, he was often stopped in the streets in Auckland and Wellington and asked, “Where’s the dog?”