Lights Out

It’s worth keeping in mind that Tom Bodett—the everyman voice of Motel 6 for nearly 40 years—is not just a motel pitchman. He is a uniquely creative voice who was discovered by an ad agency thanks to his periodic contributions to NPR’s All Things Considered.

The gambit worked for a long time, and allowed Bodett to have a career full of fulfilling work, which we featured in a 2018 profile on him, an excellent piece by our very own David Buck. Bodett is an author, an occasional voice actor. A woodworker. And he still gets featured on NPR a lot, thanks to his regular appearances on Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me!

In case you need a mood-setter for this story.

“The Motel 6 work is quite lucrative and allows me to do pretty much what I want, and only what I want to do in my creative life,” Bodett told Buck in an unused quote from the interview. “If something interests me and looks like fun and a challenge, I’m in. I’ve been extremely fortunate that way.”

Which is why it absolutely sucks to hear that Motel 6 has failed to pay its primary spokesperson, leading Bodett to sue the company’s owners in a federal court.

Here’s what happened, per the complaint: Bodett’s long-running relationship with Motel 6 has more or less consistently worked like clockwork for nearly 40 years. But at the end of last year, the company was sold to the Indian hospitality giant OYO in an all-cash deal. That company, which was only founded in 2012, bought Motel 6’s assets and debts, which included the final year of Bodett’s contract with the motel chain—a not-small bill of $1.2 million, according to the legal filing.

(Side note: I had to go onto friggin’ PACER to get a copy of this. You’re welcome.)

OYO didn’t pay—and that led Bodett to work behind the scenes to resolve the issue. However, instead of swift action, he got “misrepresentations, obfuscations, and delay tactics,” according to the filing.

“Moreover, once Mr. Bodett was forced to terminate his agreement with Motel 6 due to Motel 6’s wholly unjustified breach, Motel 6 continued to make use of Mr. Bodett’s name and voice, all without Mr. Bodett’s consent,” the filing says.

To be clear, Bodett wasn’t just doing commercials. He was so deeply embedded in Motel 6’s brand that the company even used his voice to do wake-up calls in the morning. For its part, the company’s immediate parent, G6 Hospitality, defended itself in a statement to Fortune, saying:

We appreciate Mr. Bodett’s contributions over the past years. We are reviewing the claims. These demands are partly from tenure of previous owners of G6 Hospitality. However, given G6 Hospitality’s long association with him, we are trying to engage with both Mr Bodett and the sellers of the asset. We hope to resolve this matter respectfully and amicably even if needed to support from our balance sheet. We are surprised that he has chosen to litigate despite that we sought engagements and attention for potential resolution. Irrespective, we will be continuing our dialogue with them to find a viable solution. Of course, we will continue to advertise keeping the lights on for you in times to come.

(Not a lawyer, but that sounds to me as if they didn’t properly vet the asset they bought to understand the vendor relationships they purchased.)

In one sense, this is what always happens with an acquisition. In another, Bodett is basically their most valuable marketing asset, and in an unforced error, they made him mad, creating an embarrassing situation that drags the company’s name through the mud.

But, to be completely clear: While disappointing and somewhat novel, Bodett‘s suit is probably not even in the top 5 most embarrassing lawsuits Motel 6 has ever faced. If you do a quick Google search for “motel 6 lawsuit,” you will quickly realize that its failure to pay Bodett his deserved voiceover fee may be the least of the chain’s problems. Discrimination? Sex trafficking? Data breaches? Privacy violations? This company has seen it all.

Some might even argue that the chain might have been dragging Bodett’s name through the mud.

Thanks Patrick J. Doody for sharing this excellent cover of the Motel 6 instrumental.

When a creator loses his meal ticket, even one as interesting as being the Motel 6 guy

I’ve been thinking a lot about a recent interview that Mark Duplass gave to Vulture about his decision to use his big acting paychecks to pay for a bunch of indie television projects. “This is the Cassavetes model: I go act on The Morning Show and Good American Family, take part of my salary, and invest it in ourselves,” he said. “That’s traditionally worked well for us.”

The downside of that, of course, is that if you stop working, you no longer get that regular infusion of cash to make Paddleton 2.

In his own way, Bodett has been running a version of that in his own life. He records reliable voiceover work for one of the largest lodging chains in the country, then spends the rest of his year focused on creative work. Beyond the books Buck covered in 2018, Bodett has expanded his interest in woodworking in recent years. In his Vermont home base, he is one of the founders of HatchSpace, a nonprofit makerspace that makes woodworking resources available to the community. CBS News called the endeavor “his third act.”

Having just turned 70, the one positive thing about the situation you could say is that Bodett had a good run with Motel 6, and it happened just in time for him to retire. It’s unfortunate that a lawsuit did kind spoil that retirement, that said.

”Mr. Bodett is an American icon,” the lawsuit states, matter-of-factly. For many people, a line like that might feel like a little much, but I certainly think Bodett has earned it.

His Motel 6 persona is perhaps the best radio-driven advertising mascot ever created, and he’s essentially playing himself. And while his ads rarely have a visual format, he still hangs with the best mascots that TV-driven ad campaigns have ever created. He should be mentioned in the same breath as Ernest P. Worrell and Flo.

Maybe he won’t get the extra paychecks to support his creative efforts anymore, but presumably a good-humored guy like him has enough set aside for a rainy day.

Let’s celebrate Bodett for a great run—and hope he gets paid what he’s owed without a lot of extra drama.