"Birds" is a television commercial for the Washington Lottery; it won a Silver Lion at the 2009 Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival,[1] and "Best in Show" at the 2009 National ADDY Awards.[2] SHOOT magazine placed it on their Top 10 list for Summer 2008.[3]
First broadcast in June 2008, it depicts three flightless birds—a penguin, a chicken, and an emu—being taken hang-gliding (the chicken and the penguin are shown wearing harnesses strapped to the chest of the glider pilots; the emu's harness is suspended between two gliders).
The images of the birds in mid-air were produced by compositing video of the birds in their harnesses with video of the gliders in flight.[4]