Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Talk of the Bay

Super Bowl ad helps local company clean up

By LOUIS HAU
Published May 22, 2006

American HomeHealth Inc. of St. Petersburg appears to have scored big with a $2-million TV ad it ran during February's Super Bowl.

Since its very public debut, the new St. Petersburg maker of household cleaners has found its way into about 8,000 retail locations around the country, including stores owned by Target Corp. and Publix Super Markets, said Steven Lewis, vice president of sales. By the end of the year, the company hopes to be in more than 15,000 locations, he said.

To help reach that goal, the company has become a periodic closed-caption sponsor of high-profile TV programs, such as the Oprah Winfrey Show, Dr. Phil and Martha Stewart's Martha ("Closed captioning sponsored by...").

American HomeHealth's cleaners will begin appearing on The Price Is Right by the end of the month. The company plans to launch national ads on cable TV in July.

In another boost, the company's sanitizing hand spray won a Retailers Choice Award this month from the Food Marketing Institute for the top health and beauty product. The awards are given to new products that retailers think "will fill a void or a niche that consumers are going to respond to," FMI spokesman Todd Hultquist said.

Lewis declined to release sales figures, citing competitive reasons. But he said the company has generated enough sales to more than cover the cost of the Super Bowl ad.

[Last modified May 22, 2006, 05:00:55]