Does watching a woman in open-toed shoes step in dog excrement — okay, okay, a mixture of pudding, graham crackers and Cheerios that really looks like dog excrement — and then gagging make you want to buy a D.C. lottery ticket? If you’ve been watching the NCAA Tournament — during which the above ad has run constantly — you’ve certainly had plenty of opportunities to ask yourself that question. If the answer is no, well, at least you now know who to blame:

Bad things happen every day to people, says the ad’s maker, Richard Coad, the chief creative officer at MDB Communications, a Washington-based firm that includes National Geographic and Fannie Mae among its clients. When bad things happen — let’s say your car is boxed in or your fly is down all day — you need something to counter it, something fun, Coad says. And fun, in the ad campaign’s catchphrase, is a “Lottery intervention!”

Coad is also “the brains” (the Washington Post’s words, not mine) behind Subway’s Jared campaign — but he really, uh, pushed the envelope here: D.C. Lottery executive director Buddy Roogow has decided that the ad will no longer run “during dinnertime or while kids might be watching.” I assume that’s because of the shit, and not because it suggests purchasing a $20 piece of paper which gives you a one in 360,000 chance at winning a million dollars will solve all your day-to-day problems. Lottery intervention!