Troutman chairs get star treatment on TV

Jay McIntosh -- Furniture Today, February 26, 2013

In a music video for the song “Telescope,” posted on www.cmt.com, Hayden Panettiere is sitting pretty on a Troutman Chair product.

TROUTMAN, N.C. — Troutman Chair is getting some welcome if unplanned product placement these days in a music video and a reality TV show.

Champ Land, vice president of the furniture manufacturer, said he recognized his product right away when he saw actress and singer Hayden Panettiere's music video for "Telescope." Panettiere drags a chair (a Troutman 15L, for "large") onstage at the start of the video, swings it around so the back is facing forward, and straddles it as she sits on it and sings.

"The chair gets about as much face time as she does," Land said.

He also saw something familiar on "Moonshiners," the Discovery Channel reality TV show that follows people who operate illegal backwoods stills and the law enforcement officers who try to catch them. In a scene of a group sitting around a table talking, they're all on Troutman 15Ls, he said.

Land was less surprised to find information from a website the company sponsors, www.rockingchairtherapy.org, cited in a new book, "Newborn Baby Manual" by Doris Fravert. The author, a pediatric and neonatal nurse and scientist, had contacted the company about a year ago to request to use the information.

Fravert mentions using a rocking chair for calming both baby and mother, among other benefits. Her book, which covers the first 28 days in a newborn's life, is available on iBooks for $9.90.

"This book is a great gift for first time parents. It is not only informative but easy to read and comforting," said Land.