When Cleo Simone opened LePaitoire in Spokane, she budgeted $2.2 million to promote the exclusive boutique, which featured exclusive apparel by Parisians Marie Santel and Chloe Schling, and prices starting at $3000 for a designer purse strap.
The marketing plan included targeting women with names like Marlene and Brooke, utilizing digital singing stilettos, and paying actress Elll Sims $60,000 to carry an umbrella for six hours.
Simone had projected revenue of $8.6 million during the first three months. It ended up being only $7584.02
“She should have come to us first,” says Dex Wheeler, president of Wheeler’s Blowing Tube Persons of Chicago. As of 2025, he says, blowing tube persons are recognized as the most effective marketing tool in America by 18 different organizations.
“People see this giant waving figure in front of the store, blowing and waving, and deep down they know it’s not a real person,” says Wheeler. “But they still stop to make sure.”
Over 80 percent of US businesses now employe blowing tube persons – up from two percent in 2018.
“My customer base had fallen by 40 percent due to changing condiment habits,” says Polly Reynolds, a salt and pepper shaker maker from Toledo, Ohio. That changed when she rented a tube person. “Now I can’t keep shakers on the shelves,” she says
Newark barber Sol Pitt reports similar results. “I went from four or five cuts a day to being on my feet 12 hour,” he says. “You’d think I personally invented the buzzcut.”
With just $650 left in her ad budget, Simone decided on one last-gasp effort in June: A seven foot blowing inflatable, waving at passersby in front of the store – and wearing a Marie Santel cap.
Sales increased from $1654,67 in June to $10,005,483.44 in July.
