During the Late Show on Sunday Night, Steven Colbert advertised a struggling small business during the pandemic: Foggy Pine Books. Trying to show the importance of buying local, Colbert explained, “Big companies aren’t the ones that need our support the most right now,  It’s small businesses that have been hurt the most in this pandemic.” Colbert went on to say, “Of course a small business could never afford the millions of dollars it would cost to produce and run an ad on CBS tonight, which is why we here at The Late Show have decided to just pick one and just give it to them.

The ad, narrated by Sam Elliot and featuring Tom Hanks, did an excellent job highlighting the small business by describing books at Foggy Pines as “an adventure waiting to happen” and showing off Foggy Pine’s updates during the pandemic, including a drive-through window. 

After the ad aired, Mary Ruthless, the owner of the store, explained that within the first few hours, the bookstore received more orders than they do in a typical month. Prior to this ad, the business was quite vocal on social media about their struggles, explaining to their followers that they needed to sell a minimum of 1,350 books a month to stay in business. For reference, they had only been able to sell 836 books the month before.

Mary Ruthless detailed their struggle, saying, “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… winter is our slowest season and I was really concerned about whether or not we were going to make it through the season.” Small businesses like Mary’s have undoubtedly struggled throughout this pandemic with an estimated 100,000 being forced to shut down. This story shows the power of media and how with a little bit of help, businesses like Foggy Pine Books have been able to survive.

Link to Shop Foggy Pines Books: https://www.foggypinebooks.com/#/

The Ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knj-EgX3Uhc 

Mary Ruthless’s reaction to the ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LExJyYVjOXo&t=184s