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Ron Sherman Sets Guinness World Record for TV Commercials

3 min read

After a year and a half of counting, documenting, and sending evidence to New York, Ron Sherman was certified Tuesday as the Guinness World Record holder for the most TV commercials produced in a career.

Ron Sherman Advertising of Little Rock hosted dignitaries, media representatives and a special envoy from New York City at its cavernous offices and studios off I-30 in southwest Little Rock. Special guest Michael Empric, adjudicator for Guinness World Records, flew in to certify Sherman’s record of 3,503 commercials.

Sherman, a familiar face as an Arkansas television weatherman for three decades, starting in 1970, was quick to point out that the record figure was only a fraction of his ad output. The number represents only a year’s worth of spots that could be verified and shipped to New York for documentation in the Guinness database. He estimates his specialty shop has cranked out 75,000 commercials over the last 15 years.

Sherman, whose off-camera name is Steve Jumper, said his company produces dozens of commercials each workday, specializing in direct-response ads, mostly for home improvement companies. They appear in hundreds of markets across the U.S. and Canada.

The celebration included dozens of guests, officials like Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola, Randy Zook of the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce and Pulaski County Sheriff Doc Holladay, and a sheet cake celebrating Sherman as a world record holder.

“It’s like a validation of all we do here,” Sherman said before the ceremony. “We do more commercials here, over 6,000 a year, than anyplace I’ve heard of. It’s sort of like telling your mom, you know, I’ve got this great job, and she says, ‘Oh, that’s nice dear.’ But this is the kind of recognition that makes people sit up and take notice.”

Sherman pointed out that his firm’s commercials, featuring his face and voice as an avuncular ad-libber telling people it’s time to improve their homes, are often supplied with footage from local markets – leaves in St. Louis, pine needles in Atlanta – but that each of the 100-plus commercials his agency sends out per week are “original creative.” Some of the agency’s top national and regional home improvement accounts include Englert LeafGuard, Beldon Home Solutions, Window Works, Window Depot, Owens Corning Basements and Bath Planet.

“We have other talent that we use; it’s not just me,” he said. The commercials “might not be as image-perfect as a commercial you spent a month producing, but they are high-definition and good enough in quality to work well in markets like Chicago, Seattle or Toronto. It’s not tiny little cable markets. And these commercials make the phones ring for our home improvement clients. The phones ring and the cash registers ring.”

The agency is one of the top advertising firms in the country in the home improvement niche, a point of pride for Sherman, 65, who was raised in small-town Bono (Craighead County) and started in local radio at age 15. He praised his wife, Sheila, for her solid handling of the agency’s money over the years. He also nodded to his daughter, Dianna Stockdale, a force behind getting the world record recognition, as well as his son, Ron Jumper, for his help in sales.

Empric, the Guinness adjudicator, congratulated Sherman and his team, and presented an official certificate.

“Guinness World Records isn’t just weird stuff,” he said, stirring laughter. “We recognize real people doing amazing things. And this achievement of 3,503 commercials is certified as a new Guinness World record title.”

After congratulating Sherman, Empric tried to hand Sherman the microphone. Sherman declined with a grin and patted his pocket.

“The guy who made 35 hundred commercials is miked,” he said, deadpan.

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