Like so many, I’ve been riveted by the presidential campaign and the gender dynamics at play. I even planned to write about it when the DNC convention ended. But what to say after so many others have already weighed in on the topic?
So I moved on to another pressing issue: the heretofore unknown to me ubiquity of celeb-branded home decor. The aha moment came while shopping for a rug to adorn my new home office in the mid-mod house we are renovating.
When we repainted my current home office a while back, I meant to get a new rug to complement the freshly applied coat of periwinkle but instead put down an old rug to protect the hardwood floors in what was meant to be a temporary solution. Years later, it’s still there.
As we spiff up what we expect to be our forever home, I am determined not to repeat that mistake borne out of indecisiveness and misplaced thriftiness. So I resumed my search, soon toggling over to Ruggable, which has been bombarding me with social media ads for an eternity.
Maybe, I told myself, the rugs will actually look good.
As suspected given the many styles of rugs that have popped up in my social media feeds over the years, there are tons of options on the site. But what really got me were the sponsored collaborations: I’m talking Goop, the late style icon Iris Apfel, Jonathan Adler and even Bridgerton.
My first instinct was to roll my eyes at the choices, especially the Hollywood tie-in. My second: to click on the Bridgerton tile — only to discover some of the rugs actually look cute.
Reader, I might even buy one.
And yes, it seems silly to even contemplate such a thing. But what if I just like the pattern?
Rational, skeptical me would have scoffed at the notion of such a purchase 20 minutes earlier. But now I’m contemplating it, even as I ponder weighty follow-up questions such as: exactly how many Bridgerton licensing deals and tie-ins are there, anyway? What’s the weirdest one out there? And: How much money does Shonda Rhimes get for them?
The scope of licensing deals has become truly dazzling over the years: I remember loving a Jungle Book movie promotional record my grandparents gave us when I was a kid, though my company man father wasn’t as keen since they got it at a gas station rival to Arco, his employer. And I have tracked licensing deals and promo tie-ins as a journalist, first homing in on marketing activity related to VHS and DVD launches.
At least in those cases, there was an obvious connection to the merch: Today’s celeb and Hollywood endorsed goods run the gamut from food items to liquor and, yes, home improvement products.
Earlier in our renovation process, I was tickled by the existence of self-stick wallpaper from TV’s Property Brothers — and ended up purchasing it to line stained kitchen shelving for a similar reason I am contemplating a Bridgerton rug: I liked the pattern better than the other options in the store. But at least that product seemed more closely linked to the duo’s work – home improvement — than a line of rugs tied into a streaming show set during the Regency era.
Even after all my years covering showbiz – and vague awareness of promotional blitzes tied to Bridgerton — that surprised me. Turns out, Hollywood branding deals really are all around us.
More Bridgerton goods:
Petit Fours, teapots and blood orange mixer at Williams-Sonoma
Various goods from The Republic of Tea, available via World Market and elsewhere
Official coloring book via a collab with Random House
Netflix merch
Plus, my favorite home entertainment story, written for Variety: The death of VHS
Diane Garrett 