Decoder Ring: Cellino & Barnes, Injury Attorneys, 800-888-8888

Slow Burn

Slate Podcasts

News, Society & Culture, History, Documentary, Politics

4.6 • 25.1K Ratings

🗓️ 27 December 2022

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ross Cellino and Steve Barnes were two Buffalo-based lawyers who became the literal poster-men for personal injury advertising. They poured millions of dollars into ads that did more than just bring in clients: it turned the duo into household names and faces—at least in New York. In this episode, we’re going to look at their rise and everything that happened after. It’s a bumpy ride full of ambition, accidents and tragedy and at its center are two men who, for 25 years, wanted to be at the front of our minds when we got hurt, but who we didn’t really notice until it all fell apart. We hear from Ross Cellino, Rich Barnes, Jeremy Kutner, John Fabian Witt, Trish Rich, Ken Kaufman, Mike Breen, and David Rafailedes. This podcast was written by Katie Shepherd. It was edited by Andrea Bruce and Willa Paskin. Decoder Ring is produced by Willa Paskin and Katie Shepherd. Derek John is Slate’s Executive Producer of narrative podcasts. Merritt Jacob is Senior Technical Director. Thank you to Rachel Strom and Meryl Scheinman, host of Prank You. If you haven’t please yet, subscribe and rate our feed in Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And even better, tell your friends. If you’re a fan of the show and want to support us, consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get to listen to Decoder Ring without any ads. Their support is also crucial to our work. So please go to Slate.com/decoderplus to join Slate Plus today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Before we begin, this episode contains some adult language.
0:10.9	When Katie Shepard, the Coderings producer, moved to New York City about 10 years ago.
0:15.8	She watched a lot of cable TV.
0:18.4	And the thing about cable is commercial breaks, lots of them.
0:22.1	Over time, she found that she remembered the commercials more than the shows.
0:26.4	And their jingles got stuck in my head.
0:28.5	There was the coffee one, and the fast food one, and even one for cough drops.
0:44.2	But there was one I'd never seen before moving to New York.
0:47.0	And then I saw it all the time.
0:58.3	This commercial was simple.
0:59.8	It featured two smiling white middle aged personal injury lawyers offering their services.
1:05.2	Head on, T-bone, rear-ended, don't wait, call late.
1:10.3	Walking around the city, I suddenly noticed Selenow and Barnes everywhere.
1:14.3	On billboards and subway ads and in bus shelters, always asking the same thing.
1:20.1	Injured?
1:21.1	They felt like a part of New York to me.
1:23.2	I thought of them as a kind of certainty, a reliable package deal, always together, with,
1:28.4	of course, that catchy jingle.
1:30.7	And it wasn't just me.
1:31.7	It was a jingles stuck in my head.
1:33.7	For years, it went Selenow and Barnes.
1:37.4	Injury attorneys, 800, 888, 888, 888.
	...

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