John Elway Furniture

I'm driving home from an errand this morning and hear an ad on the radio for John Elway Furniture at SAMS Club.

Really? John Elway, the Hall of Fame quarterback? Has a furniture collection? Did he design it?

I thought it was a little hokey when Cindy Crawford teamed up with Rooms To Go with a signature line of furniture, but John Elway?

The parent company is Bassett. So, I picture myself sitting around the board room table at Bassett Corporate going, "Sales are down folks. What are we going to do to jump start our growth? We need a name, a gimmick..." Snap, snap, snap of fingers. "Think people, think."

"Hey, I know," says young, eager marketing exec. "Let's call a football player and design a signature line of furniture."

"Yeah, that's the ticket." More finger snapping. "Someone famous."

"John Elway."

Okay, maybe it didn't go down quite like that, or maybe John Elway was on the golf course one day and said, "Hum, I'd like to design furniture. Or at least have my name on a line of furniture."

Does it make me run out and buy furniture from Sam's? No! It feels insincere really. I'm curious, but not intrigued. Not motivated to buy.

Now, a line of sportswear or footballs for the kids, or even a BBQ grill or something, but inside the house furniture. Nope. Do not buy it.

Now, say, Nate Berkus comes along with a signature like of furniture for Sam's, I'm buying it. Interestingly enough, you don't see Nike signing up Nate to launch a signature sportswear line or footballs.

I thought the purpose of using a Celeb in marketing was to capitalize on their association with certain things - say sports, or decorating, or music.

It'd be like me asking John Elway or Nate Berkus to endorse one of my books. Cool, but really? No one is going to buy it cause what do they have to do with southern chick lit.

I don't know, maybe it's just me.