• by Karl Greenberg , September 11, 2007

La-Z-Boy, maker of that chair associated with anaerobic relaxation, is launching a broadcast, print, and online campaign with the tag-line, "Comfort. It's what we do."

The effort is also the first by RPA, the Santa Monica, Calif. ad agency that also handles Honda and Acura. RPA won the account this spring, beating out Doner.

The effort promotes the La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries stores and targets "comfort seekers" between 35 and 64 years old with a household income between $50,000 and $150,000, per RPA.

Spots show La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries as havens for neurotic comfort seekers. The ads have different, weird or eccentric people coming into La-Z-Boy galleries and finding nirvana in the soporific joy of a plush seat.

One ad has a blue-collar guy, angry, entering a La-Z-Boy store, telling the sales guy to leave him alone. We next see him reclining on a La-Z-Boy, gazing beatifically at the ceiling and asking the salesperson to join him in imagining the ceiling light is "a little pony."

Another has two guys and their girlfriends watching in chagrin as one guy tries to make another guy--who's lying on a sofa--uncomfortable by making weird interpretative dance gestures around his head. He fails. Finally, another guy, deeply unsettled, comes in, asking for a sofa. He sits and is immediately catatonic, even saying "hey, buddy" to a fly that lands on his nose.

The ads broke on Monday Night Football during ESPN's double-header opener. Four more spots begin on Sept. 17 exclusively on ABC during season premiere weeks on programming such as "Dancing With the Stars" and "Boston Legal." Also, the TV buy includes college football games on ABC and ESPN throughout the fall. Three additional national spots begin during the holiday season.

The national cable TV buy starting this week includes over 20 networks, per RPA, including A&E, Bravo, CNN, ESPN, HGTV, Lifetime, TBS and USA, all of which have added-value components.

The agency says, for example, that HGTV, DIY and the Food Network will feature items called "Short Stories," which are vignettes that combine content with La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries brand and product information. The 60-second documentary-style pieces show real people, and will air within a half-hour program across three commercial breaks in prime and weekend dayparts.

Print breaks in November in 15 mass-market publications that align with the comfort positioning. Online advertising begins Sept. 17 on online directories and content Web sites. Search marketing is composed of behavioral, content and keyword targeting.

Also, La-Z-Boy has exclusive integration on ABC during the first "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition." The deal includes home page roadblock on the program's Web site the day the episode airs.

The company is also creating regional, retail spots that dealers or dealer groups can use to cover promotional events like Presidents' Day, clearance or high-impact weekend sales. The agency says the deal provides La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries dealers with the ability to choose from a continuously growing tool box of unique creative.