Advertising efforts by two home furnishings retailers in my area (a Northwest Chicago suburb) recently caught my eye—not because they were glitzy and in-your-face, but because they were different and unexpected.

I found the first hanging on my front house door when I came home from work one day. It was a 8-inch-by-10-inch, paper bag with silhouettes of two vases and the words “I’ll Take 2 Thank You” and “Buy One Accessory, Get the 2^nd Half Off” on one side and “La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries” and “www.la-z-boy.com” on the other side.

Inside the bag were three colorful pieces of literature: two 8.5-by-5.5-inch postcards and a 10-inch-by-11-inch sheet with information about the promotion, the names and locations of the participating La-Z-Boy stores and descriptions of some of the stores’ services.

The second promotion that caught my eye was on (not in) The Chicago Tribune that I received the Sunday before Memorial Day. It was a 3-inch-square, peel-off, Walter E. Smith Furniture ad designed to resemble a U.S. treasury bond and with text explaining the company’s Memorial Day promotion.

Now, how could an ad that small catch my eye in a newspaper jam-packed with Memorial Day sale flyers? Easy. The peel-off ad appeared near the newspaper’s nameplate. I noticed it before I even glanced at the main headline.

I still have both these promotional pieces. The flyers? After a cursory look, they went right into my recycling bin.