Snuggies And ShamWows Beseige Nation's Cheap Airwaves
The economy is 'sploding so that means it's infomercial mating season. Prices for airtime are dropping as bigger advertisers pull their spots, so the Billy Mays of the world are now getting slots during 30 Rock commercial breaks. At the same time, more people are watching TV because they don't have money to go out and it helps anesthetize them to the pain of reality. Thus, the rise of the ShamWow and the Snuggie, a super slurping sponge cloth, and a blanket with arms, respectively. Let's take a closer look.
Exhibit A: The ShamWow:
Save on heat and warm up with a Snuggie!:
And of course, the inevitable parodies. The ShamWow one is particularly good, and a bit NSFW.
ShamWow Parody:
Join the cult of Snuggie:
As seen on TV! Pitchmen reign during hard times [Star Ledger] (Thanks to Matthew!)
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Comments:
while the shamwow actually is a useful product, if not played up quite a bit by the ridiculous infomercial, the snuggie is a good idea stolen and remarketed and just plain stupidly advertised
@minsky: At least you didn't get one for Christmas. I did. DH says I look like I belong in a cult. A fuzzy, green, snuggly-warm cult.
Almost everything advertised on TV like this can be found for cheaper from different companies.
Bless it, I want a ShamWow and I'm not ashamed to admit it. I also want the other thing that guy advertises. It's like a Magic Bullet but cheaper.
You can see the history behind where these guys and products came from at www.pitchpeople.com.
I got a Snuggie for Christmas this year.
I wish I were joking.
In the Shamwow spot, it sure looks to me like they switched the carpet (it goes from having a large, visible puddle to none at all).
And the Snuggie is just a robe worn backwards. I've seen it referred to as the Ebor by a friend on Facebook
@BlondeGrlz is having a BlondeBoyz!: In his other commercial for the grater and food chopper he actually slips in the line "You're gonna love my nuts!" I shamelessly giggle everytime he says it.
I had never seen the snuggie before. The fake commercials totally nailed it. My immidiate thought was religon or cult like clothing. I love the family at the sporting even. Who in their right mind would leave the house dressed in one of those things?
Is THAT why i've been seeing a lot of mini infomercials?? Wow!
@elislider: Yep, it's totally a rip-off of the Slanket, which my wifey owned even before me and I use nightly, lol. I'm not ashamed to admit I wear the thing and look like a damn monk in the dark.
Slanket > Snuggie
I very much dislike that guy shouting at me. It's difficult to watch TV these days, mainly because I'm dieting and every other commercial is fast food. Most of the time I just turn it off.
The article doesn't specify if these are local affiliate ad buys or network ad buys.
@minsky: I was laughing because of the opening footage of the woman using the normal blanket. I didn't think it was possible to _fail_ at wearing a blanket, but she's trying her hardest to make it look possible.
It would have to be a cold day indeed before I would be caught dead wearing a Snuggie while sitting in the bleachers at a ball game. I'm sure no one would look twice at a man wearing a red monk robe in public.
The women wearing them look failry normal, but the men in the commercial look absolutely ridiculous.
The infomercial also glosses over the fact that the Snuggie is open in the back. It would work OK while you were sitting in a chair or lying on the couch, but if you tried to wear it to a ball game, your back's going to get awfully cold.
I love the exaggerated way these infomercials portray the "problem" that their product solves. Example: when the pre-Snuggie woman needs to answer the phone, she very theatrically throws her entire blanket off of her so she can pick up the receiver, to illustrate the need for the Snuggie. All she had to do was slip one hand out from under her normal blanket and she could saved herself the shame and ridicule of wearing a Snuggie.
Lastly, the Snuggie is not a new concept. My mom used to have a similar product way back in the 1970s.
Yeah, I thought I was losing it when I've started to see the Shamwow commercials on a station other than WNYW and WWOR (Fox5 and My9, two formerly respectable stations in the NYC area that Fox conveniently trashed lately.)
The ShamWow guy's second commercial is even better. For the SlapChop or something like that, one of those cheesy little chopper things you pump the handle on.
It has some real gems in there like "You're gonna love my nuts" and "nobody wants the same boring tuna..."
Vince is kind of funny though, less douchey than Billy Mays IMO. But lets be serious here...
RON POPIEL FTW!!!!!!
@paxetaurora: The correct way to deal with this level of giftident is to re-gift it to whoever got it for you.
PTKDude is right. Watch the shamwow commercial and the carpet is dripping wet on the carpet and the tabletop. Then there is an edit and suddenly the carpet has a round small stain on it and no liquid underneath. This has more to do with deception and editting than a chamois towel.
The Snuggie is the stupidest thing I've ever heard of. It looks like some weird cult robes. How about wearing a bathrobe?
Does the shamwow actually work? It seems really fake.
I received a ShamWow for christmas and tested it in the same scenarios and it worked great. No joke. This has been the only thing from an infomercial that ever did work though ( for me at least). I laughed my ass off until it really did soak up the soda I spilled to test it. Amazing.
We were having Mythbusters night with some friends and the 'Snuggie' ad came on. It was the first time any of us had seen a 'Snuggie' and we all immediately came to the conclusion that anything looking so much like a cult robe was a bad idea. And honestly, people -- how incompetent do you have to be to fail at using a blanket?
That's the thing that I loathe the most about ads for products like that; it isn't the yelling so much as the marketing that suggests everyday life is just too damn difficult without [ridiculous one-trick product].
@audemars: BILLY MAYS HERE FOR OXICLEAN! BUY MY PRODUCTS BECAUSE I'M CONSTANTLY YELLING AT YOU FOR SOME REASON!
Still, there's just something really creepy about Vince, the ShamWow guy... And yes, the Slap Chop is an epic win of an infomercial:
I have fashioned a Snuggie out of 100% ShamWows. I often wear it whilst using my SlapChop.
@elislider: I don't have a shamwow, but I have one of the million other exact same products. It's pretty awesome, you can dry your whole car with it.
@BlondeGrlz is having a BlondeBoyz!: Yep. There is a huge discussion at gawker right now on how inferior the snuggie is to the slanket. Apparently it's shorter and creates enough static electricity to power Don King's hair.
@3drage: You need to watch more tv directed at women. Every other commercial is for Nutrisystem, Weight Watchers or SlimFast.
Just how hard is it to use a blanket? the Snuggie is basically a hideous loose robe.
I love how the Shamwow and all these other low-quality cheap things come with a 20-year or lifetime warranty. As if the company will be around longer than one measly year anyway!
@redskull: The exagerated problems thing always reminds me of the infomercial on Friends where Joey can't open a carton of milk. I can't find a clip, but it's hilarious.
I always call Vince the ShamWow Guy "Mr. Creepy Methhead" when his ads come on, because I've known some tweakers in my colorful past and damned if he doesn't look, act, and talk just like one.
While I enjoy these commercials I am in LOVE LOVE LOVE with the "Amish Fireplace". I was VERY happy to have the opportunity to catch the 3AM (couldn't sleep) 30 minute infomercial for the product. Highlights from that:
1) One amish guy was using a powered nail gun to finish the cabinet
2) Made by the Amish (with a note at the bottom of the screen: Heater made in the People's Republic of China)
3) Children warming their hands by the "fire" (it is a projection of fire, the heat comes out the top vents)
4) The 30 minute version offers 2 less colors than the 30 second version
5) It's 300 friggen bucks
6) Your gas bill will go down! (because its electric ... I was waiting for that claim)
7) Your heating bill will go down (separate claim, but there is then a disclaimer which says "based on climate and usage").
and my favorite
8) The statement that their competitors only use weak pressboard, but with the Amish fireplace the top piece is real wood!
This thing is like a lesson in every trick in the book. Can't get enough of THAT commercial!
Vince from ShamWow and SlapChop - best spokesman ever? Quite possibly.
@ptkdude:
Indeed. These commercials have an excessive amount of trickery and editing. Most of the time these products are plasticy junk. Some, though, are good but get lumped into the category of the infomercial product.
Shamwow is one of these products. Microfiber chamois are a good product in general, but as I'll never buy anything over the TV, I'd never get one ;)
I totally wish I had a snuggie. I wanted the slanket but it used to be like seventy bucks, even now at fifty it's way too expensive. With the snuggie, you get an extra one for + s/h, so you end up getting two for about $35.
Everyone seems to be knocking it, and while I wouldn't wear it in public and the commercial tries too hard, I can't even count how many times I wish I had a blanket with sleeves. Come on, try changing the TV channel with your arms inside the blankets!
@jdmba: While items 2-8 are rife with BS item #1 not so much. The amish in Missouri use power tools and even tractors on their farms. But that's because they beleive that those things are only to be used for work. They don't have cars and they also don't have electricity in their homes. My mother purchased a backyard shed from some amish folks that didn't live too far from her. They had all kinds of electric and pneumatic power tools.
lolol the slapchop... "Your going to love my nuts"
The Purple Snuggie makes you look like Grimace
A white Snuggie would make you look like a Klan member.
@m4ximusprim3: I own a Slanket mainly because I'm cheap, natural gas is expensive, and I like to use my Laptop while I watch TV. But yeah, when I saw the Snuggie I'm like "too bad Gary Clegg didn't have a patent" I actually wouldn't mind if I got a second Slanket as a gift...though I would turn my nose up at a Snuggie because it's a Blatant rip-off.
I got them both. I tend to get liquored up and order things I see on TV late at night. Haven't used the sham wow yet but like playing videogames in my Snuggie.
If Shamwow honestly worked as well as they claim it does, I'd easily spend $50 to $100 on a couple for the prospect of A) not having to buy paper towels and B) work with something ultra-absorbent, something that the micro-fiber cloths I've used in the past fall flat on.
Everything I read online, however, says that it's little more than a strip of felt. It's a huge bummer. Why'd you let me down, Vince? WHY'D YOU LET ME DOWN?
PS: Valve secretly based The Scout off of Vince. Okay, maybe not, but the similarity is uncanny. Is someone keeping track of Shamwows sold? BONK!
I want to know who spends $20 a month on paper towels.
@roshambo:
Good question. The answer, of course, is nobody. Otherwise it's safe to say they are crazy and you better stay away from them.
@Airjoe:
I got a pair of these for my wife for Christmas. She likes hers fine. They do keep you warm and all,but they are a pet magnet when you take them off.One problem that I have heard is that the manufacturer misjudged demand and missed a lot of sales (ads promised 2-6 week delivery,mine took like two months) and now the whole gift market is out,so you should get one pretty quick.
Shamwow- Looks like its own knockoff. Thay all but promise immortality for buying these things,but really,if you did a bacterial scan of one after a few uses,you'd be pretty disgusted. Paper towels are still the way to go.
When I first saw the snuggie commercial a few weeks back, I fell out of my chair laughing. Who the fuck would wear one of those in public?
All the people look like monks in those things.
Just to freakin' funny!