Election fun for Ladbrokes

New ads exploit the current high levels of interest in the British general election

The UK online and land gambling group Ladbrokes is having some fun with the highly topical British general election in its latest advertisements, the first of which features a Tony Blair lookalike betting against Gordon Brown - at a Ladbrokes shop of course.

The advert, which is already attracting plenty of attentioon on Youtube, is part of a campaign created by Alison Jackson, the photographer behind the famous "Sch ... you know who" lookalike ads for Schweppes.

Jackson has been commissioned to produce a series of tongue-in-cheek film ads playing on the general election and the upcoming football World Cup.

The first ad by Jackson, who three years ago produced a spoof image of Gordon Brown and Tony Blair pulling a Christmas cracker for Schweppes, has been launched this week.

In the 45-second film a lookalike of Tony Blair is "caught" on shaky hand-held camera footage going into a Ladbrokes betting shop to place a hefty bet on David Cameron to win the election. "I always back the winner, you know," says "Blair" to the bookie taking his bet.

As he departs the Blair lookalike pushes over a lifesize photo cutout of his former Chancellor.

The campaign, called "What are the Odds?", will run for three months and include at least six films with "lookalike" celebrities.

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