Comments on: Infomercial Mania

By: steve e

steve e — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 10:48:17 +0000

Vince Schlomi on the SHAMWOW: “It’s made by the Germans. They always make good stuff.”

By: Phyllis

Phyllis — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:38:46 +0000

Too bad nobody has the guts to speak the truth: people buy from these things because they are idiots.

By: Beth

Beth — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 12:35:04 +0000

I enjoyed this piece enormously. I used a pointer to this show for my class on social engineering and network security. It is just the other side of the coin.

In all the years I have only purchased one thing. I purchased a set of CD’s from the late lamented K-Tel. Enjoyed the CD’s and found they were good value but got junk mail from them for years before they went out of business.

By: fredericc

fredericc — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 02:32:31 +0000

Let’s not forget the morning shows. Just because the time is paid for by the network doesn’t meant it’s not an infomercial.

By: Janet Sagen

Janet Sagen — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 22:13:23 +0000

Buyer Beware?
I heard no mention of “truth in advertising”. Don’t we
have laws that regulate how you can represent a product?
I feel that this lack of regulation says much more about our society than the fact that people get sucked in
by taking “mental shortcuts”. Remember the Psychic Network
and how long that went on before there was legal intervention.

By: BAS

BAS — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 00:42:00 +0000

Remy Stern completely ignores Tom’s question : “So many infomercials at all times, who is watching them and why?” Instead explaining why the stations need the revenue from them.

Skipping along the surface of this topic it seems. No one really wants to lift that rock and take a look eh?

By: Algonquin J. Calhoun

Algonquin J. Calhoun — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 22:33:28 +0000

“Billy we hardly heard thee.”

A tribute to the late Billy Mays. Never bought a thing he sold, but he was so darsh gone intense and , dare I say, loveable.

The others (especially that Carnival barker Sham-Wow guy) are pure hacks, no better that the crap they sell, but Billy seemed to really be into his products.

By: m

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 22:10:46 +0000

oxyclean does indeed work really well. Trader Joes has an even better, environmentally friendly version.

By: Beth Horst

Beth Horst — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 16:08:22 +0000

May I suggest the song “Vegematic” by Steve Goodman as a warning to all about late night buying!

By: Pete Jensen

Pete Jensen — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 15:58:05 +0000

There are also infomercials that we *actively* seek; an example that comes to mind is “Will it blend” – which advertises a blender that can blend anything. It’s incredibly funny when they blend things like: a golf club, an iPod, the list goes on. Needless to say I couldn’t believe I actually wanted to watch what is essentially an infomercial.

By: Vicki

Vicki — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 15:57:26 +0000

My husband loves to watch the music infomercials. I’m so thankful that he refuses to use his credit card number over the phone or the internet, or our CD collection would be absolutely overrun with moldie oldies.

By: edd

edd — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 15:55:04 +0000

okay okay….I spent 500 bucks on a set of subliminal cd’s to fix all my problems 10 years ago…..I have no idea what was on them – I listened for 20 mins to the white noise wondering what messages were being implanted – I freaked out – I threw ‘em away….it’s not that I had too much money…I had access to too many credit cards and got sucked in

By: Ellen Dibble

Ellen Dibble — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 15:52:24 +0000

Where I live, there is a drug store chain that has a set of about 5 shelves for “as advertised on TV.” You can ask the clerks about them.
I do wonder with TV ads where these things are made, how far they are shipped, where taxes are collected.

By: Ken

Ken — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 15:46:06 +0000

I want to mention that Vince with the slap chop seems different than any pitchmen that came before him, he seems like a product of youtube culture. He is snide, a little crude, he seems to be making fun of the medium itself while selling the product.

By: Suzanne Michelle

Suzanne Michelle — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 15:42:25 +0000

I see someone has beat me to the pledge drive comment — public radio would be greatly hampered w/o pledge drives, no? Get these guy to do your fundraisers? It could be the whole bass-amatic ‘09 …

(people I know incessantly talk about the “Sham-Wow” … and I know about the you-tube parody …

By: Marion

Marion — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 15:38:52 +0000

Ah, yes– You’d think it costs $400, but you wont even pay $390, or $200, or…

This is straight out of an aria from “L’Elisir D’Amore” (The Elixer of Love) by Donizetti, first performed in Milan in 1832 — which was based on an even older piece. This is an ancient concept.. I’m sure cavemen were shilling their cave paintings!

By: Bob Werme

Bob Werme — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 15:24:38 +0000

Selling everything to the masses on the edge of geographical or cyberspace frontiers – snake oil, religion, you name it – is Americana at it’s best! Billy Mays got nuthin’ on Billy Sunday, Aimee Semple McPherson or Jimmy Swaggart.
I’m also haunted by this sentence from an article on free market capitalism I read recently …
“By definition, buyers and sellers do not coerce each other, in the sense that they obtain each others property rights without the use of physical force, threat of physical force, or fraud, nor are they coerced by a third party …”

By: Doug

Doug — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 15:21:00 +0000

I realized I was getting old when I first saw an infomercial product I wanted. Sometimes you win though.

And there are awesome parodies on youtube by the way.. particularly:

“Slap Chop Rap” with Vince

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWRyj5cHIQA

and the Doom Snuggie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h05ZQ7WHw8Y

By: Bob Gardner

Bob Gardner — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 15:03:54 +0000

I know all about informercials; I’ve heard pledge drives.

By: Fred Hegel

Fred Hegel — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 14:39:53 +0000

I love what the infomercials do. They get folks to buy what they absolutely do not need, or often, even want. In the very rare event that I too feel the need, I just go to two or three garage sales and find, not one, but two, new in the box.
But wait, there’s more, the bonus items are also there and of course included.