- Norton Furniture
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Norton Furniture Type Furniture store Headquarters Cleveland, Ohio, United States Key people Marc Norton Products Furniture Norton Furniture is a Cleveland-based furniture store that is known across the Internet for its strange and unusual late night television commercials.
Norton Furniture is owned and operated by Marc Brown, who inherited business from his father in 1995. The store is located in downtown Cleveland on the corner of Payne Avenue and East 21st Street.[1]
Contents
Advertising
Norton Furniture is widely known for its unorthodox B-Rate commercials, as they have circulated across the Internet on many viral video sites. The commercials are known for their wacky characters and low production value, as well as the spokesperson for Norton Furniture, Marc Brown, who sports a gray ponytail, glasses, and an unmistakable quiet, raspy voice somewhat like the voices of Marlon Brando and, as Homestar Runner fans note, Senor Cardgage,[2] due to physical damage to his throat when he was a child. The tagline of the commercials is "If you can't get credit in my store, you can't get credit anywhere. My name is Marc, and you can count on it!"[3]
Common elements include local actors as well as mannequins (stocked by the store) to which he often delivers his spiel, and a comedic skit structure.
The commercials have been featured on MTV's viral video show and several late-night television programs, and were among the local TV programs which were awarded "Best of All Time" (2007) in the Cleveland Free Times.[4]
Brown participated in the 2010 campaign to keep LeBron James in Cleveland, by appearing in the Please Stay LeBron video.[5][6][7]
References
- ^ "Midnight Hustler", Cleveland Scene, January 19, 2005.
- ^ "Forum thread: Real life reminds me of Homestar", 2007 (posts 1, 3-4).
- ^ "Norton Furniture is Baaack", video on website of Spike network.
- ^ "Cover Story: Best of All Time: Local TV". Free Times 15 (22). October 3, 2007. Archived from the original on 2007-10-12. http://web.archive.org/web/20071012053824/http://www.freetimes.com/stories/15/22/local-tv.
- ^ "Tell LeBron James You Want Him". Cleveland.com. May 14, 2010. http://www.cleveland.com/lebron/index.ssf/2010/05/tell_lebron_james_you_want_him.html.
- ^ (Flash video) Please Stay LeBron! Cleveland Celebrities Sing for The King. WOIO TV News. Jun 29, 2010. Event occurs at 00:42. http://www.woio.com/global/video/flash/popupplayer.asp?ClipID1=4788962&h1=Please%20Stay%20LeBron!%20Cleveland%20Celebrities%20Sing%20for%20The%20King&vt1=v&at1=News&d1=58133&LaunchPageAdTag=Search%20Results&activePane=info&rnd=56322956. Retrieved 2010-09-25.
- ^ Feuer, Alan (June 6, 2010). "Luring a Star: Big City Beckons; Cleveland Begs". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/05/nyregion/05lebron.html. Retrieved 2010-09-25.
External links
- "Late night just right for Norton pitchman", The Plain Dealer, July 4, 2006.
- http://www.myspace.com/nortonsfurniture, which includes examples of the commercials.
Coordinates: 41°30′19″N 81°40′36″W / 41.50528°N 81.67667°W
References
Categories:- Companies based in Cleveland, Ohio
- Furniture retailers of the United States
- Internet memes
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