We all love an award (and by the way our Site of the Year Awards results will be posted shortly) and the marketing men have recently revealed their best and worst celebrity based TV adverts of 2011.

While none of the top 10 were bingo related (no surprises there), one bingo ad has the dubious honour of reaching the top 10 of those voted as being the worst of the year!

Campaign magazine polled its readers and it turns out that the Brits Bingo TV adverts featuring Gavin Henson and Katya Virshilas were not that popular and were voted as being the second worst of the year, behind Jenson Button and his Head and Shoulders shampoo ads.

That’s some going considering how bad the Just for Men hair dye ad is that features Luis Figo and the one for Flora Cuisine featuring Vernon Kay and his mother!

Personally, I loved the Brits Bingo ads as readers of these pages will know. I think they were funny and broke the mould of the normal boring bouncing bingo ball ads, but there is no accounting for taste.

We will have to wait and see if the Brits Bingo TV ad has fared any better in our own WhichBingo end of year poll. But in the meantime, given the success both Gavin and Brits Bingo are enjoying at the moment it will be a case of any publicity is good publicity.

It was only in February that the player left the Saracens club after an unsuccessful spell there – the highlight of his time at the club seems to be the time out he had to do Strictly Come Dancing.

The internet is buzzing with the news that what actually happened was that Gavin has allegedly had a fight with a team mate which would constitute a breach. Now, what do you think could cause big burly rugby players to turn on each other in that fashion? Well if Gavin Henson wants to keep playing Rugby and earn the respect of his fellow players and that coveted call up for the Welsh World Cup squad, it could be that maybe he should leave his dancing shoes in the cupboard.

I think it is also entirely possible that his new teammates have been reading WhichBingo and have seen the stories we have been running about Gavin being the face of new bingo site Brits Bingo. The television adverts are also a big giveaway and although I love them they are quite camp in that Gavin is quite willing to get his shirt off and parody his new found dancing skills.

Those big, French he-men would not take too kindly to this namby pamby Englishman possibly making them a laughing stock by being more interested in his tan than the rugby ball I think. It would not take too long in the testosterone filled dressing room for friendly banter to turn to fisticuffs.

Well Gavin, if its any consolation, I think you look great in the Brits Bingo TV ads and if you want a change of career I don’t think you will have any problems – I am sure the Chippendales will find a spot for you.

Wayne, the brains behind FreeBingo.co.uk who works just across the office from me, has been experimenting with new ideas recently and wanted to get stuck into transforming the podcast by syncronising it to video.

Along with the original bingo podcast, we are unaware of any other bingo site out there currently doing anything like this and I think it’s a great idea. While listening to my little review of the new site design or my interview with Cristie from Wonder Bingo, you now have a graphical walk through. The video gives the words much more meaning when you can actually see what is being described.

What do we call it? Anything from video cast to video blog has been mentioned, either sounds OK to me!

We now have plans to take this even further and have some great ideas on where to go next. Watch this space, WhichBingo is going into the video business!

You can view the shiny new ‘WhichBingo UK Podcast with video’ below:

I took advantage of the spend £5, get £5 free promotion that Mecca Bingo are running to encourage existing bingo players to give the new game a go and I must admit that at first try it felt like there was a little too much going on. I almost missed confirming my online bingo ticket purchase a couple of times as I was scrolling through to find the Bonus Balls Jackpot numbers I wanted, but it is possible to save a selection if you want to use the same ones every game.

Every now and then the scratchcard popped up and that delayed buying tickets too and there is not a win every time it appears as with the scratchcard games on some other bingo sites. All in all however, the new game is very playable and the graphics are excellent considering there is so much going on.

There were nearly 400 players in the room when I was there and the games moved through very quickly, but the pots were good and the ticket prices varied from low to high and that is good too.

However, once I had spent through my qualifying £5 I decided that a better option for a win might be one of the other bingo rooms that would be a bit quieter while many people were playing the Britain’s Got Talent game and this proved to be the case. I will go back though once the initial rush has died down, but it will be interesting to see which of the TV formats wins the day – the Deal or No Deal bingo game or the Britain’s Got Talent bingo game – the Banker takes on Simon Cowell!  Who do you think will win?

Clover Rollover Progressive reaches £2m

I took my free £5 and moved to the 75 ball Lucky 7 bingo room and played my online bingo quite happily for the next couple of hours, aided by some small bingo game wins to keep me playing and some wins on the Clover Rollover slot.

I like to ensure I make a few spins at 50p a go on Clover Rollover to ensure I would qualify for the Share the Wealth promotion and part of the £10,000 pot on offer by Mecca to be shared by anyone who has played the day the £2m+ jackpot is won.

Don’ forget it is not just existing customers who get free money to try the Britain’s Got Talent bingo game, Mecca Bingo are offering all new customers £5 free to play too. Players just need to register, go to the BGT game in the bingo lobby and £5 will automatically be credited. This is on top of the first deposit cash match offer up to £50 for new players to the site.

Plus as an added bonus all Mecca Bingo customers who play anywhere on Meccabingo.com in May will be in with a chance of winning Britain’s Got Talent Grand Final tickets.

I write a lot about Mecca Bingo, but the offers it comes up with and its games are second to none and it is only fair that I share them with you even though I might then have to fight you for those elusive bingo wins!

Now completely CGI generated rather than being a cuddly looking fury chap in a suit, Foxy is seen dancing around a supermarket after a woman called Mandy, singing a revised version of ‘You’re the one that I want’ from the film ‘Grease’.

Like many Foxy Bingo adverts from the past, this one is hard to ignore and it’s definitely one of those tunes that gets stuck in your head. Whether it will tempt you, the viewing public, to head over to Foxy Bingo remains to be seen!

BingoBoy

Click here to watch the new Foxy Bingo ad on YouTube

The two bizarre, terrifying stories both ended happily, with the little boy found in the attic of his house and the baby escaping with only a bump on the head.

After two such harrowing tales, I am definitely in need of some light relief and a bingo game. Fortunately, there is a new TV ad from Sky Bingo to check out today, as well as their £20,000 jackpot game, which costs just 2p to enter!

Let’s hope the rest of the weekend is free from drama and full of bingo!

BingoBoy

It begins with a lady innocently enjoying a game of online bingo but once she wins, things get a little bit weird.

Now I’m a big fan of dogs but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t find this one just a little bit disturbing!

Click here to watch the video!

BingoBoy

Recently, we’ve been checking out the new advert from Foxy Zero, in which Foxy is scribbling away at his drawing board trying to think of a new idea before stumbling upon the notion of Foxy Zero. Of course, we now know the site is a big hit, so his scribbling paid off!

Also popular on YouTube are the new Tombola Bingo adverts, set on a picturesque desert island and featuring a rather demur gentleman who is welcoming excited people to the land of Tombola!

Make sure you check them out if you get a chance.

BingoBoy

The details of the shoot have been kept tightly under wraps but we managed to find these fantastic pictures on Twitter, that show the Tombola crew hard at work (a-hem!) on the new ads.

Can’t wait to see the fruits of their labour!

BingoBoy