Online Bingo continues to be an extremely popular form of gambling in the UK, despite the introduction of stricter industry regulations. One of the major clues can be found in the amount of TV exposure many of these online bingo sites still enjoy. After all, air-time doesn’t come cheap. With this firmly in mind, we’ve put together a collection of popular bingo ads and inserts that have graced/soiled our TV screens in recent years. Some of you will love them. Others not so much.
Gala Bingo Insert
The Gala Bingo insert accompanies The Chase and appears before and after commercial breaks. The format? A feeble, inadequate bloke (is there any other kind on television these days) is harangued by various chasers at home presumably while his missus is partying the night away at a Gala Bingo club. Although the lucky lady is often present in the ad she’s usually indifferent and aloof. Natch. In most instalments her other half is seen making a mess in the kitchen, forgoing housework and being generally clueless about all things domestic. Men are crap, remember?
Foxy Bingo
Another over-exposed advert that ran for years and years. The central theme revolved around a person in a fox mask (Fabulous Foxy of course!!) who’d turn up at an assortment of locations including an airport and supermarket. Irrespective of the setting, most of the ads descended into a bout of synchronised dance in which participants breathlessly celebrated the glory of bingo and financial profligacy. Foxy presided over the whole tired spectacle offering inane puns and sexual innuendos about bingo. Unsurprisingly, he became a cult figure. But while there are some who just couldn’t get enough of Foxy, there were plenty who wanted to punch him in the snout. It is the latter group of which I confess being a member.
Sun Bingo
‘Are you Gonna Bingo?’ Um, let me have a think about that one. This horror show has been playing on our screens since 2018 as part of a gruelling promotional deficampaign by Sun Bingo. A rotund female character (played by comedienne Jayde Adams) in leopard print coat, repeats this mind-numbing mantra for what seems like the full thirty seconds. She’s often accompanied by a gaggle of actors suitably attired in working-class garb across a variety of ‘urban’ locations. However, Adams also springs up in a coffee-picking field for some obscure reason. The advert actually says a great deal about how gambling marketing execs view their target market. The word ‘contempt’ immediately springs to mind. And it leaves a pretty unpleasant taste in the mouth truth-be-told. We should also point out the Sun Bingo website isn’t actually considered a very good bingo platform among seasoned players.
‘B-I-N-G-0!!!’ – Wink Bingo
Remember this 2014 televisual travesty? Wink Bingo was the culprit, replacing the famous Ottawan pop song DISCO with, yeah ok, you get it. Fronting up this commercial crime of the century was a group of everyman actors miming to each letter with the kind of gusto usually brought about by substance abuse. We strongly urge you to watch the ad on YouTube – the sheer audacity displayed by Wink Bingo induces a kind of dumbstruck wonder. In fact, it’s so bad, it’s good. Nevertheless, our advice to you would be: ‘DON’T-WASTE-ALL-YOUR-CASH’, DON’T-WASTE-ALL-YOUR-CASH’ ‘DON’T….ok we’ll stop now.
Bingo Heads – Bet 365 Bingo
The Bingo Heads commercials ran back in 2010. One of the more relentlessly-aired instalments comprised a fairly basic premise. A group of women in silver Lycra danced to a 90s pop song by C&C Music Factory with giant bingo balls on their heads. Uh and that’s about it really. Genius. Oh and the voiceover was provided by that Geordie actress from East Enders who used to go out with Phil.
And that concludes our horrifying little trip down memory-lane. While online bingo is still frequently advertised on television, brand exposure is nowhere near as pronounced as it once was. We have stricter rules about TV advertising and a mollycoddling nanny state to thank for this. So many of the commercialised creep shows that once besmirched our television screens have now been consigned to the ashtray of history. But just how grateful should we be? Here’s a hint: ‘B-I-N-G-O’