A Really Good Bad Idea: The Story of Burt, Don & Scott

When the core component of your brand is ridiculous, then doing a risqué centerfold for an advertising campaign is par for the course.  Especially one that is to carry on and honor a tradition started by Burt Reynolds.  Check out Burt in Cosmopolitan here. 

I am a HUGE FAN of any really good bad idea or what I call a “Flash of Brilliance!” For me, being outrageous is a way of life, and as a Serial Entrepreneur and Business Artist I get off on creating a brand and a buzz. With an ultra fun vibe and an outdoor adult playground, including a stock tank swimming pool, one thing is clear, Banana Manor is "Not Your Typical Rug Store".

It all started when I started following social media influencer Joshua Starkman.  Because Josh is so outrageous himself, it only seemed fitting to co-create something that would be so beautifully outrageous and unique.  Together we created a Banana Manor version of Barry Manilow’s Copacabana — burlesque dancer and all.  Check it out here.  It’s Quite entertaining to say the least. I promise you will agree. 

The day of filming Josh asked me, “You know about the nude billboard flooring guy in Miami, right?” I did not.  But in just 5 seconds he showed me the iconic billboard, and an idea was born;) It was confirmed for me when I had a moment of clarity in yoga and then the wheels were set in motion. Thank God for those moments of clarity in Savasana!

The “naked billboard guy” story began when Burt filled in for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show.  In 1972, shortly after the filming of Deliverance finished, Burt met with Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown, who happened to be a guest that night. During a commercial break she invited him to be the first male nude centerfold of the magazine. 

"At the time, you know, men liked to look at women naked," Helen Gurley Brown later said. "Well, nobody talked about it, but women liked to look at men naked. I did."

Burt accepted and kudos to him for embracing what turned out to be a “really good bad idea.”

Reynolds stretches across two full pages of the April 1972 issue of Cosmopolitan. He's got a smirk on his face, a limp cigarillo dangles from his lips, and a fuzzy bearskin rug is underneath his also-fuzzy body. His arm is strategically placed in front of his "tallywacker," as Reynolds later called it. He chose the photo that appeared in the magazine himself.

In the words of Helen Gurley Brown: “He had been a movie star, now he was a celebrity.” 

Released just a few months before his career-making role in Deliverance hit big screens, the centerfold proved to be a launching pad for both Burt Reynolds and Cosmopolitan alike.  All 1.5 million copies of the issue sold in a flash.

The iconic photo further inspired Douglas Lambert, and in January of 1973 the first issue of Playgirl magazine was released. 

Then in 1992, it was Don Bailey’s turn.

Don, a self-made man, had started as a janitor at a flooring store.  He was granted a series of promotions and became the truck driver’s helper, a truck driver, a salesman,  a manager, and finally vice president.  Having a knowledge base for all things flooring, on a shoestring budget he started his own flooring store in Miami.  A couple hundred thousand cars drove by his building every day, but the location made it hard for him to stand out and be seen.

Don used to play high school football against Burt Reynolds and his two friends were roommates with Burt. After the Cosmopolitan nude centerfold of Burt, Don’s friends told him how Burt always got the most beautiful women and how they would hang around him to scoop up dates from the overflow. 

Don had his “really good bad idea” moment and said, “Damn, that’s what I should do. I should pose like Burt Reynolds and people will find me!” 

He didn’t have the money to paint the sign as he had just started the business with a limited amount of money. But his brother, a pictorial artist who just so happened to work for a billboard company, recreated the iconic Burt Reynold’s Cosmo pose with Don -- in all his naked splendor -- for free!  

Don used to only get 3 to 5 people a week in his shop. The first day the billboard went up right outside his storefront, 20 women came in! 

So here we are — First Burt, then Don, now Scott! 

One silly idea and a Friday night lubricated by Aperol Spritz’s at the Banana Manor warehouse with my smokin’ hot lady directing the photo shoot and VOILA...we had the “next generation pic!” 

The vision I had was of a blitz of multiple billboards in metro New Orleans and then some between major cities in South Louisiana.  Plus going after key major markets in the U.S., by testing out a couple in Atlanta and Dallas.

With the goal to get the word out nationally that our vertically integrated model is not only unlike any other rug store on the planet, it is also the largest rug factory outlet in the U.S., with "We are the Factory Prices" that offer the best value for handmade rugs. 

And for wholesale; press releases to ensure media coverage to fan the flames of excitement.  As we set-up a large exhibit at the Dallas Market, with a giant three-sided sign, suspended overhead for everyone in the expo hall to see. 

But it didn’t end there... The same night that the next generation nude billboard guy pic came to fruition, inspired by the Abbey Road album cover, we filmed an Insta-reel of me crossing the street carrying a large wooden banana, covering up my man parts.  There I was, just about naked, holding a giant wooden banana boldly going where no man has before.  Crossing Tchoupitoulas street outside of Banana Manor in Uptown New Orleans—appearing to be quite NAKED to all.

The current status of my billboard media blitz is it got shot down by all 3 major billboard companies to run it “as is”. One company colored in some bottoms to make it more obvious that I am not completely naked and agreed to run it with that minor change. 

So the billboards start running Sept. 9th all over the city of New Orleans.

Ready or not here I come! 

Our friends at billboard behemoth Lamar, had the following to say about approving my billboard to run:

“Unfortunately, we can't run the copy as is- too provocative and lascivious.  The image needs to be much less revealing, and the innuendo needs to be muted.” 

While I am sure there are those (like the folks at Lamar) that won’t ever approve-but we don’t really care about those party poopers anyway.

Long live Burt, Don, and Scott and all those who embrace “RIDICULOUS!”

These are just a couple of my really good bad ideas that are just SO good, stay tuned for more ridiculousness!

Burt Reynolds full story, as told in his own words, can be accessed here and the same for Don’s here.