Tom Hanks and Stephen Colbert Super Bowl Ad Saves Small Bookstore [Video]

• Super Bowl ad brings to life a flailing small bookstore.
• The Late Show of Stephen Colbert paid for the ad, Tom Hanks endorsed it, and Sam Elliot narrated it.
• After the ad aired, Foggy Pine Books has been dealing with a deluge of orders from all over the world.

---

Who can afford Super Bowl ads?  It is the giant corporations that can produce and run these ads who can.  But what about the small businesses that are struggling to keep afloat in this pandemic?  As Stephen Colbert pointed out, “These big companies aren’t the ones who need our support the most right now. It’s small businesses out there who have been hurt the most in this pandemic.”

Thanks to his show’s research team, they chose Foggy Pine Books to be given a Super Bowl ad.

The small bookstore operates in the Appalachian town of Boone, North Carolina.  The store’s owner, Mary Ruthless says that it could have been their transparency that made them stand out.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Foggy Pine Books (@foggypinebooks)

They have been transparent in posting on Instagram their sales numbers and goals. Their business is “struggling deeply.” To stay open, they need to sell a minimum of 1,350 books per month.  But they only got to sell 836 in January.

Ruthless said, “I did everything I could try to do to stay in business. There were several weeks I didn’t take a paycheck, I had to lay people off after our PPE ran out, but we made it through the holidays.”

It pleased Ruthless. But winter being the slowest season had her concerned as she did not know if they could make it through the season.

But with the gift from The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and Tom Hanks’ endorsement, everything has changed. Foggy Pine has been swamped with orders from all over the globe.

Hanks said in the ad, “Foggy Pine Books has the best selection in all of Boone. They have books on all of my interests, such as World War II, and also books about the events from 1939 to 1945.”

Actor Sam Elliot narrated the ad and hailed reading as a kind of adventure.

For everything, Ruthless hopes that the opportunity will allow Foggy Pine to make meaningful connections with new customers. “And to just add more people to the community of book lovers that we’re trying to build,” she added.

Source: TODAY