This recent e-mail we received took our breath away and we just had to share. You know those commercials we love to hate, the rug commercials with the busty, backward-walking bundle of energy? We’ll, the media will have the chance to travel "behind the scenes" to get up close and personal with the star, Jamie Simpson, and the production crew as they film a new commercial. Exciting, no?
We like Jamie. But we don’t like how she yells at us sometimes. And how we see her like every 30 seconds during the local news broadcasts. But there’s no doubt that these commercials work – they stick in your mind like chewing gum in shag carpet. According to the press release below, more than 5 million people have seen Jamie do her thing. Damn!
We doubt we’ll actually get inside this incredible event. But if anyone gets any photos, please send them our way. We’d love to share, to see what it really takes to talk and walk backwards among giant hanging carpets.
Behind The Scenes With Rug & Home and Jamie Simpson
Media Day March 22nd 11:30 am – 1:30 pm at Rug & Home of Asheville
Media Day March 23rd 11:30 am – 1:30 pm at Rug & Home of Gaffney
Rug & Home TV commercials have become renown as the talk of the Carolinas, Georgia, Eastern Tennessee and Southwestern Virginia. These fast-paced, riveting commercials are even more discussed than those of the Super-Bowl. From Columbia to the Tri-Cities in Tennessee and Virginia, from Charlotte to Greenville, Spartanburg, and Asheville, nearly 5 million viewers have watched these commercials over the past 3 years, resulting in a total of nearly 300 million gross impressions.
Rug & Home won the prestigious "National Rug Retailer of the Year" award in July 2005. Additionally, Rug & Home was featured in a three-page article in the Southern Living, and was #69 in Entrepreneur Magazine and Dunn & Bradstreet’s "Hot 100 New Businesses in the Country" in 1999. Trade publications Rug News & Rug Insider have featured the store in headlining articles in the past six months as well.
For Jamie Simpson, the "Rug Gal", the Rug & Home commercials were her first TV commercial debut, and since then she has become the most recognized spokesperson in the viewing area. From car dealers to furniture retailers, everyone wants their TV spots to look like the Rug & Home commercials. "Jamie was picked from a dozen applicants," says Rakesh Agarwal, CEO of Rug & Home. "Jamie’s youthfulness and an abundance of energy is what convinced us she was the perfect selection for our commercial concept," added Mr. Agarwal. In addition to requests from numerous area businesses and organizations for Jamie’s presence, she has also done some promotional spots for the Charlotte Bobcats and Charter Media.
For the first time ever, Rug & Home is opening the filming and production session of its TV commercials to the media. This is a unique opportunity to travel behind the scenes with Rug & Home’s production team and Jamie Simpson to show an interested public what goes into the making of these illustrious commercials.
12 Comments
Jamie Simpson is a breath of fresh air, although I will admit, sometimes she comes in gales. She is beautiful, confident, and does what she does really well. Folks, understand that Jamie is a performer … she gets paid to do as she is instructed. All that yelling? Even she has admitted she doesn't like to hear it the first thing after she wakes up, but honestly, it is up to the station and Rug and Home when the commercials air. She has been doing it for years, so I guess she's doing something right. Go, Jamie!
She Is sexually loud and annoying I agree..
Oh, Jamie Simpson is recognizable all right – you can hear her a mile away. The
Rug & Home commercials have been the same, boring ads for years – all the same
format, with her running around, screaming and waving her arms, same dialogue and
vocabulary – I know it all by heart. I cannot understand her popularity. Jamie Simpson
is the MOST annoying and irritating person on TV and, as soon as I hear that first
bellowing syllable, I mute her! I hope she retires soon!
i always enjoyed her beauty and the shouting never bothered my eyes.
Me again, come to find out that those 50 shots were actually taken by a "professional"? shooter for Link magazine. I thought they were done by her boyfriend.
Whoever took those 50 pictures really sucks! I’m talking model was flawless! the shadows in the face? really brutal didn’t do her any justice maybe 6 or 8 good shots. next time Jes call me. 🙂
Y’all are pretty big on this chick eh?
Here’s my take:
http://www.theputdown.com/theputdown/2007/10/jaime-simpson-t.html
Ash – If you don’t bring back photos and observations from the media event for all of us Persian and Oriental woven rug fanatics, you ought to CNTR-ALT-DEL your blog. Or, better yet,have your TV locked on only Duke highlights from SportsCenter for the next three weeks.
– Bulldog
Damn, I’d love to go but I have already designated that day for picking the lint out of my blowdryer. Damn, damn, damn!
More of Jamie:
Here’s her bio at Jamie Simpson Marketing’s website:
http://www.jamiesimpsonmarketing.com/meet_the_team
50 pictures at:
http://upstatelink.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Avis=BS&Dato=20060131&Kategori=LINK&Lopenr=601310801&Ref=PH
A little more, from the blog associated with those pictures:
http://news.greenvilleonline.com/blogs/link/2006/01/
Her MySpace site (Google’s cache indicates she’s 25 years old, ’cause she’s sure not 14, as listed:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=2375255
And now she’s going big time:
http://tbs.com/stories/story/0,,68031,00.html
"These fast-paced, riveting commercials are even more discussed than those of the Super-Bowl."
Um, yeah. Whatever.
But oh how I wanna go. Gotta whip up some media credentials.
/blush
I wouldn’t mind having a party on her rug.