Norton Furniture
Encyclopedia
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.
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, 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!"
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
.
Brown participated in the 2010 campaign to keep LeBron James
in Cleveland, by appearing in the Please Stay LeBron video.
Furniture
Furniture is the mass noun for the movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating and sleeping in beds, to hold objects at a convenient height for work using horizontal surfaces above the ground, or to store things...
store that is known across the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
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
Downtown Cleveland
Downtown Cleveland is the central business district of the City of Cleveland and Northeast Ohio. Reinvestment in the area in the mid-1990s spurred a rebirth that continues to this day, with over $2 billion in residential and commercial developments slated for the area over the next few years...
on the corner of Payne Avenue and East 21st Street.
Advertising
Norton Furniture is widely known for its unorthodox B-Rate commercials, as they have circulated across the Internet on many viral videoViral video
A viral video is one that becomes popular through the process of Internet sharing, typically through video sharing websites, social media and email...
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
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...
and, as Homestar Runner
Homestar Runner
Homestar Runner is a Flash animated Internet cartoon. It mixes surreal humor with references to retro pop culture, notably video games, classic television, and popular music.The cartoons are nominally centered on the title character, Homestar Runner...
fans note, Senor Cardgage, 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!"
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
Free Times
The Cleveland Free Times was an alternative weekly newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio.The Free Times published its final issue on July 16, 2008. It merged with Cleveland Scene, a competing weekly paper....
.
Brown participated in the 2010 campaign to keep LeBron James
LeBron James
LeBron Raymone James is an American professional basketball player for the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association . Nicknamed "King James", he was a three-time "Mr. Basketball" of Ohio in high school, and was highly promoted in the national media as a future NBA superstar while a...
in Cleveland, by appearing in the Please Stay LeBron video.
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.