Remember that Arizona mattress company that threw up the billboard that said “Peyton Manning, Please Sleep Here!” in an attempt to convince Manning to sign with the Cardinals? We thought that was pretty clever. Apparently Peyton’s people were not amused. As you can see from the ESPN.com video above, R&S Mattress operations manager Chuck Madler says that IMG — Manning’s marketing agency — sent R&S a letter telling them they did not represent Manning and asking them to take down the billboard. The letter should have said something like “we have absolutely no sense of humor.”
If you really wanted to, I suppose you could make the argument that they were using Peyton’s name to sell a product. However, it’s not like R&G used a picture or anything elaborate on the billboard. They simply put Manning’s name and were making an innocent joke. I understand IMG has a job to do in representing Manning, but don’t they have enough money from selling his name? Would it kill them to let one slide?
