How an endorsement from Tom Hanks and Stephen Colbert saved a small bookstore TODAY 3/4/2021 Elyse Pham Before last month's Super Bowl, Foggy Pine Books was one of the thousands of small, locally owned businesses floundering amid the coronavirus pandemic. Nestled in the Appalachian town of Boone, North Carolina, the bookstore had calculated that it needed to sell a minimum of 1,350 books per month to stay open. In January, it had sold 836. Thanks to a gift from The Late Show with Stephen Colbert — along with some help from Tom Hanks — that changed in an instant. Super Bowl ads are precious real estate, typically reserved for the corporations who can pay millions to produce and run them. But as Colbert pointed out, "These big companies aren't the ones who need our support the most right now. It's small businesses out there who have been hurt the most in this pandemic."