Ode to the Blue Shirt
To some, Billy Mays was just a loud, blue-shirt-wearing pitch man used to sell products you didn’t know you really needed. To others, like every-day inventors, Billy helped dreams of success and fortune come true.
Billy started his career as a travelling salesman crossing the country pitching household items like the Ultimate Chopper at tradeshows and fairs. In 1999, he got his big break selling OrangeGlo on the Home Shopping Network. What followed included dramatic success with products like OxyClean, Mighty Putty and the Awesome Auger.
The TV show, “Pitchmen” humanized him and showed Billy as not only a sales person, but a savvy marketer and loving family man. What becomes glaringly apparent while watching the show is that it’s Billy’s personal brand that inventors are drawn to to realize their dreams. While building brands like OxyClean, he was creating his own brand standing for trust, quality and value.
It’s a success story built one commercial at a time…“As Seen on TV.”
The Hawaiian Chair
...................................................................................................................................................................... “Get fit while you sit…” sounds a little oxymoronic don’t ya think? Given the current health craze of our society, it’s no surprise that the market is full of new and innovative workout machines, products, and gadgets. However, one product that did come as a surprise to me is The Hawaiian Chair.
The Hawaiian Chair is an automated exercise machine that claims to perform many positive health-benefitting actions such as, “burning carbs, calories, and fat, easing muscle and joint pain in senior users, and targeting the core muscles of the body.” Wouldn’t we all love to get the perfect body simply by sitting in a chair?
Forgive my skepticism, but a fun workout machine which moves your body in a pattern similar to the Read more
Infomercial Brands: Tempur-pedic
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Ever been awake at 2:00 am surfing through the channels, hoping to find something to bore you into a deep slumber? Well I have, and I always seem to stumble across the infomercial for the Tempur-pedic® Sleep System, made famous by it’s ads promoting jumping on the bed with a full wine glass of red wine resting stably. After years of watching the infomercials, they finally sold me and I recently purchased a Tempur-pedic bed myself. Unlike most products sold heavily through infomercials, it actually delivers on its promise.
This Swedish brand all began with a material developed by NASA to relieve g-forces experienced by astronauts. Now millions sleep on layers of TEMPUR® Material. The Tempur-pedic sleep system has also been awarded the “Certified Technology” Seal by NASA signifying that the product evolvedRead more
Infomercial Brands: PedEgg
In the market for a brand new foot file? Aren’t we all? Now you can have the smooth, beautiful soles you have always dreamed about. The PedEgg™ is a revolutionary foot file that gently removes callouses and dead skin—with a cutting-edge name to boot.
PedEgg ingeniously pairs the prefix “-Ped”, from ‘podiatry’, with “-Egg”, a term descriptive of the product’s ergonomic design. But wait! There’s more…
This eggcellent product is conveniently designed to hold all of your foot shavings within the egg for a quick, clean disposal. Wow! That’s amazing! Gross, but amazing!
Call now and receive an additional PedEgg free with purchase. One for each foot.
Contributed by Laine Beyerl
Infomercial Brands: kiNOki
Google “infomercial foot pads” and the first page of search results speaks to immense customer dissatisfaction and charges of false claims with this “Japanese-based” product.
Billed as the “ancient Japanese secret to perfect health,” the Kinoki Detox Foot Pads claim to detoxify your body while you sleep through small pads that you place on the soles of your feet. And even though the FTC has charged the manufacturers with deceptive advertising, the name of the product is interesting from a structural perspective.
Take a look at the balance of the name as it begins and ends with the letters “ki”. Several sources cite “ki” as referencing energy or spirit. The letters are noted as the name of the Sumerian goddess of the Earth, and the phonetically similar “Qi” in Japanese connotes a life force or spiritual energy. All positive associations for a product that is supposed to renew and refresh your energy by ridding your body of negative toxins. Oh, oops, the company embedded the letters “no” within the reference of a balanced life force. Guess they were telling us the truth after all.
