Hail To The Chief
When I watched W. speak last Saturday on 9/11 in Shanksville, PA, it reminded me of the time when my son Joe, my brother Chad and I delivered a La-Z-Boy recliner to Bush, Sr. in D.C.
Back when pops was president, we had a retail client, Weinstein Furniture, who was really taking a sales hit because of the economy. At the time, Bush was taking a shellacking because he was spending more time abroad than addressing the tanking economy back home.
So Charlie Weinstein says to me, “You have to come up with a high-impact awareness ad. My budget is shot, so you have one crack at it.” We came up with an idea to run an ad saying that Weinstein Furniture was going to give Bush a La-Z-Boy so he was more comfortable at home.
Charlie loved the ad but made the mistake of sending it to his brother Bob who was a New York City lawyer. Bob said the ad would offend Republicans and Charlie shouldn’t run it. Squelcher attack, Jack. Charlie chickened out and I fought like hell to talk him into delivering the chair to the White House with his highly visible, logoed delivery truck. He would have been a hero for small businesses all over America.
But Charlie didn’t budge. He got mad at me and said, “Okay hot shot, if you think it’s such a great idea. you deliver it!” I said, “Okay, give me the goddamn chair!” He did and we drove the 14 hours back and forth and delivered the chair. George wasn’t at the White House at the time, he was out of the country as usual.
We ended up getting all the publicity instead of Charlie. It would have been a huge success for Weinstein Furniture. It’s like I always say, “The riskiest thing you can do is play it safe.” I'm not sure what happened to that La-Z-Boy, but I've heard rumors that it's still sitting in the living room of the house on Walker’s Point in Kennebunkport. Keep your dukes up.