For now, TV pitchman Mike Rowe is hot. We have no doubt he is in demand largely because he is eminently good at pitching himself as just a guy like tens of millions of other guys out there. Believable in other words.
But as sure as the sun rises and sets, the day is bound to come when Rowe's run will come to an end. That will probably be because he has become too good and too successful as the everyman pitchman. Eventually, people will become more skeptical and begin to stop buying him and whatever he's pitching.
That day surely hasn't come yet. He's done a smash-up job for Ford, so other brands want him while he still is sizzling. Take Viva towels for instance. The connection makes sense. Rowe isn't afraid to get his hands dirty. Viva exists to clean up dirt. The perfect match.
So to add something fresh to the mix along with Rowe in his debut as a Viva towels pitchman, Tris3ct/Chicago paired him with his real-life parents. In the spot, a dirtied-up Rowe is seen leaving dirt marks all around his parents' home as his mother races around behind him cleaning up with Viva.
It's another very believable turn as spokesman for Rowe. His run certainly isn't over. Not yet.
Lewis Lazare has written the Media Mix column for the Chicago Sun-Times for the past seven and a half years.

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