Best Casino Ad Ever (Not!); Another Pinnacle boo-boo

If you live in the greater Las Vegas metropolitan area, you’ve probably had a stiff dose of this ad, which is in heavy rotation during the morning news shows. I don’t know whether to be impressed that a grind joint like Club Fortune Casino has a TV-advertising budget or nonplussed by the marketing message. I mean, there’s nothing to differentiate oneself like emphasizing that you’ve got the exact same product as everybody else. Table games? In Vegas?? Shocking!!! My life suddenly feels very incomplete.

At least the Club Fortune people didn’t make the mistake Pinnacle Entertainment did: Pissing off the Black Keys with a soundalike version of “Howlin’ for You.” Since the Black Keys have taken on the likes of Home Depot and prevailed, you have to wonder why Pinnacle thought the risk it rather brazenly ran was worthwhile. When the ads ran, last September, the Akron band was already sharpening its knives on Pizza Hut, a much bigger foe than Pinnacle (which a former editor of mine always referred to as “Pinochle”). I foresee the words “undisclosed settlement” looming large in PNK’s next quarterly filing or two.