Is there any way to make furniture advertising a bit less terrible?

Napier Marketing Group and Imagine Advertising have joined forces to, at long last, liven up furniture advertising, which, according to Bill Napier, "has become somewhat tired and predictable," relying on gimmicky sales and "guys screaming about going out of business." Their strategy so far relies upon tying in nationally themed promotional events with branded properties, starting with Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and presumably moving on from there, although neither agency is releasing any names yet. This seems like, and is, a pretty random piece of news, since I don't recall hearing any specific complaints about the state of furniture advertising before this came floating across my transom. They've hit the furniture-marketing stereotypes on the head though. For the most part, furniture ads are low-budget, local embarrassments with muddy sound, shaky panoramas of a showroom and some guy who sounds like he lives on a Red Bull drip freaking out about the low prices. (The few bright spots include this classic from Montgomery Flea Market or the recent Red House Furniture treatise on racial harmony.) But there is a certain charm to these ads that slicker marketing overlooks, so it would be in Napier and Imagine's best interest to not simply replace crappy hucksterism with generic, touring-rock-star "Hello, [Your City Name Here]!" condescension.

—Posted by David Kiefaber