OSHKOSH, Wis. — Verizon’s newest holiday commercial — part of a national advertising campaign — was recently shot on location at Laundrywood, a Continental Girbau-equipped vended laundry in Los Angeles.
Flaunting custom wall art and spattered with holiday décor, Laundrywood is a card-operated, eco-focused laundry occupying a renovated, early 20th century building just minutes from Hollywood and Paramount Studios. But, who would have guessed that the 8,000-square-foot megastore would be a Verizon commercial backdrop?
Well, why not? After all, it’s a beautiful, modern laundry that wows customers, according to owner Gary Thompson. He says it’s busy, colorful and constantly in motion — like it’s represented in the zany Verizon commercial highlighting dancing customers in various stages of doing laundry, rolling in laundry carts, and jumping atop Continental washers and dryers.
While laundry owners don’t typically welcome this type of behavior in their stores, Thompson is grateful for it. It’s free advertising on a national scale.
Thompson opened Laundrywood in 2013. The high-speed store offers a 60-minute self-service wash/dry/fold, thanks to its high-speed soft-mount Continental washers, and full-service, drop-off wash/dry/fold. Customers also enjoy massage chairs, flat-screen TVs, a touch-tunes jukebox, video games and a large kids’ play area.
“We kept everything shiny and fun in the back of the store,” says Thompson. “In the front of the store, there’s a granite Wi-Fi counter with charging stations for laptops, tablets and smartphones. It’s a destination – a place to do laundry, have fun, chat and hang out.”
Turns out, Laundrywood is also a destination for filming fun, nationally televised commercials.
“We shut down the store for three days for production,” he says. “It was a lot of fun and once it was over, the crew cleaned up and we couldn’t tell that they had ever been there.”
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