On Sunday afternoon, while watching the OKC Thunder struggle to score against the Denver Nuggets, a commercial ran across my TV that was a bigger shock than a Thunder player hitting a wide-open three-point jump shot – a Mathis Home commercial featuring a spokesperson who wasn’t a Mathis!
That peculiarity immediately grabbed my attention, as did the fact that the new, stylish, active, and very fit spokesmodel felt like a very deliberate and calculated shot across Gentry-from-Hahn’s bow.
I’ve watched TV my entire life, and I know commercials are the farthest thing from reality. For example, have you ever seen people this happy to eat WingStop?
That being said, this new Mathis Brothers ad takes things a bit too far.
First of all, how can you show the interior of a Mathis Brothers without featuring their patented salespeople in cheap suits, stalking customers like a pride of lions hunting zebras on the Serengeti?
I’m not saying you have to show them circling the front entrance like vultures waiting to pounce the moment someone mutters “I’m just looking,” but come on—make it semi-realistic at least.
Second, I’m not totally cool with the furniture store thumbing its nose at decades of tradition by not including a straight-laced, buttoned-up white guy earnestly discussing furniture prices while dramatically leaning back and kicking out the footrest on a La-Z-Boy recliner.
Yes, I know the Mathis Family has slowly moved away from that over the years—but what’s next? Braum’s using real ice cream in their commercials?!
To their credit, the commercial did stick with tradition in one small way—they showed a dog jumping on the couch. Then again, as we all know, that’s just a subliminal way to get you to spring for the furniture protection plan:
Out of professional curiosity—and as a service to you, dear TLO reader—I did the prerequisite investigative journalism to learn more about this mysterious new Mathis spokesperson.
From what I gathered, she appears to be an LA-based model and actress named Selena Moreno. She’s starred in a short film, had bit parts in a few TV shows, and recently portrayed Savannah in Clark Matthews’s favorite show Days of Our Lives. Hey, a Clark Matthews reference!
In the interest of shallow journalism, I also did some respectful internet sleuthing and found that, like many aspiring Hollywood actresses who take on furniture commercials between gigs, Selena has a wide variety of headshots, modeling pics and thirsty photos online.
Here are some of them:
Nice. I definitely wouldn’t kick her out of my Lady Americana!
I do wonder, though, how did the Mathis Brothers find her?
Did they hit up LA’s top casting agencies looking for a poor woman’s Gentry? Or did one of the brothers run into her while shopping at PetSmart? I suppose both are possibilities.
Then again, maybe Rit Mathis met her while delivering furniture to the set of Days of Our Lives…
Regardless of how she was discovered, I wish Selena the best of luck as the new Mathis Home spokesmodel.
Gentry from Hahn’s already set the gold standard for pretty, approachable brunettes who affably enunciate while selling stuff on TV, but Selena seems to have the charm and on-camera charisma to become a locally recognizable face—and maybe even pass the Joe Cooper Ford Girl in the OKC commercial pecking order.
Stay with The Lost Ogle. We’ll keep you advised.
