Can Billy Mays Move Product From Beyond The Grave?
Next week, direct-response marketing juggernaut Telebrands will roll out a new ad campaign for Jupiter Jack, a tiny gadget intended to turn your car radio into a giant cell phone speakerphone. The star of the spot is recently deceased pitchman Billy Mays.
Why run the spot? For starters, both Telebrands and the Mays family know that Billy would have wanted it that way.
"We struggled with this decision," [Telebrands CEO A.J.] Khubani tells DailyFinance. "There's no precedent, and we really don't know what's going to happen. There could be a tremendous backlash."
There's a lot at stake. The new infomercial will air in "every market in the country," Khubani says, and Tellebrands spent millions on the airtime. The spot has been tested in several markets, on a very limited basis, in the weeks before Mays's death. "We've been watching the results, and they haven't gotten worse or better, which means people are buying the product because they like the product," says Khubani. "Quite frankly, I think it's the product that's going to carry the day, although Billy Mays certainly enhances it. Still, we're taking a big gamble on using a spokesman who's not with us."
How will you react upon seeing a new Billy Mays spot? Fear of zombie pitchmen? Happiness at seeing him still on the air, doing what he loved?
For Billy Mays, one final pitch [DailyFinance]
Jupiter Jack [Official Site]
PREVIOUSLY:
Billy Mays Dead At 50
Billy Mays: A Look Back At A Television Legend
Billy Mays Likely Died Of Heart Disease
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Comments:
At some point when Billy Mays was just advertising Oxyclean and a few other products, someone told me he had died. It took about a month of regular ads and some new products for me to figure this person was wrong or I had been confused about who he was talking about.
Thinking Billy Mays was dead did not influence me for or against the product. I just thought it was weird that they kept using it and wondered if he had family who were weirded out by it.
For what it's worth. ;)
He will be missed. Pitchmen was a very underrated show, who knows what will happen now that Billy is gone.
I saw this on his show pitchmen, and actually wanted to buy it then! RIP BILLY, we'll miss you!
As long as Billy Mays family approves, especially since they already acknowledeged that its what he would have wanted, I think its a great idea.
I'd hate to see everything Billy Mays just stop airing because he died....if being a pitchman is what he loved, then let him live long in infomercials, being remembered for doing what he loved.
Knowing that Billys family wants it because Billy would, I can't see why it would be a problem.
Not to be bad news bears but 88.7 is detroit's only somewhat decent radio station that I enjoy. Guess this thing isn't for me.
@gqcarrick: I agree. As corny as many of the infomercials are, pitchmen really did help people with good ideas get their product backed and sold, which is very hard to do. And there arent many people as well recognized as Billy was.
It's not like I know Billy Mays, but, i did watch the show Pitchmen, and from seeing that I am 100% certain that he would want the commercial to air.
I wonder how well that thing really works. Hasn't the FCC recently cracked down on the strength of FM modulators in cars?
I was getting requests from XM last year to buy some ferrous beads or some crap to neuter the modulator on my Roady radio.
And it seems like every device with a modulator I've used made within the last couple years (GPS device, Ipod device) barely works if at all.
I have been following Billy Mays III on Twitter [twitter.com] , and he has been saying his Dad would have wanted them to continue on. From what I gather from Billy's own Twitter page, and from him speaking, he wants to help people succeed. I think if he found out that someone wasn't getting the chance that he felt they needed and put hard work into, as well as the work he himself put in, THAT would be a tragedy.
As for Pitchmen, I watched the finale last night, and I must admit, I cried at the end. I only wished I could have watched more episodes, but sometimes at 10pm, I was tired, and bed was more urgent.
Billy IS missed, and I think that fact that his family is wearing blue shirts at the funeral is a indication of how Billy felt.
I always find it funny whenever a person or group of people says "that's the way he would have wanted it," because invariably, that's the way THEY want it as well.
@calquist: Yea but they had to change the name because the inventor didn't own the name blackjack, some other company did.
@600Followers_GitEmSteveDave: Dammit, I really hope they re run that a few times. I just moved and having no TV yet BLOWS!
"His family would have wanted it that way," but Telebrands certainly wants it that way. Otherwise all those production costs go down the drain like so much Orange Glo. Sort of like when Bennett Cerf died.
@youbastid: Actually, although true a lot of the time, I know that wasn't true in my family recently. My grandmother passed away last summer and she and my mother went about and thought about things very differently, and yet my mother and I decided to carry out things the way "grandma would've wanted" even though it involved stuff we'd rather not have done (family issues, etc). Still, I think a lot of people do follow what you're talking about. Sorry, I'm not trying to be contrary, your comment just made me think about it for a little while.
You know as much as people dislike infomercials and commercials in general, I've never known anyone who disliked Billy Mays. I think it's appropriate to continue to play his infomercials after his death.
@ajlei: That's good - comments are supposed to make people think :)
I take it back, and change "invariably" to "most of the time"
@rpm773: I've tried using it with my XM receiver before and it didn't work out all that great. At least in the Chicagoland area where there are lots of radio stations, I couldn't find a frequency that didn't experience considerable interference.
I react the same way I react to any billy may's ad:
Annoyance, wonderment why advertisers think they have to yell at me, and no small ammount of amusement that people buy the utter shit that these people hawk.
If they want to do it in a classy manner, they could take a page from St Jude Hospital, which ran a disclaimer prior to the spots they had shot just prior to Danny Thomas' demise, ststing that "The following is aired with the approval of his family" or some such.
@ajlei: Wait till my next o' kin reads my will. There's an instruction that my body be late to the church, in recognition of me NEVER being on time.
Billy Is Not Dead. He is just recording comeback ads...
Oh,please. They spent the money making this commercial and now they are going to cash in on Billie Mays' death. Bad taste and typical business thinking.
@gqcarrick: I was able to find past episodes on Torrent sites. I'll definitely be checking to find that episode though. I usually don't make it past 10. Having a baby and a corporate type job doesn't allow for the all nighters like in college :(
@cristiana: I completely agree, it should air. He would have wanted it to, I'm sure of it.
Plus - the additional money for his family wouldn't hurt anything either.
Its kinda creepy, but hey he pitched for a living and i think it could be kind of rude to not air his last pitch at least once.
Just so long as they don't go back and make more commercials with a CG version, like they did with Orville Redenbaucher.
Other than that, they spent money on the commercial, they have a right to use it, and at least they're aware of the potential for backlash. It always irritates me when a company makes a monumentally stupid advertising decision and then seems surprised when it bites them in the ass.
Normally its just a throwaway line we use to justify our doing whatever we want, but Billy Mays WOULD have wanted it that way. He was a showman and a consummate professional.
@post_break: I'm sure it's taken here in Connecticut too. Damn near every FM frequency is, seemingly, which makes transmitters useless. (Hooray auxiliary inputs?) But hey, it's a decent idea, albeit one I'm sure I've seen before.
Did anyone else find it oddly funny when he said it was hands free, then reached over and pressed a button to answer the phone?
@downwithmonstercable: Yep, completely missed the show until last night, but I've already downloaded all the other episodes. Wonder if they'd still go on with the show if it's just Anthony Sullivan flying solo...
The only thing left to do is to put him on the stage with Gene Wilder and have him sing "Puttin' on the Ritz".
...Just as a family of jackals would insist that their slain son would have wanted them to drive their snouts in the belly of the wounded baby gazelle and start chomping madly until sated.
And they'd be right.
Really, not much difference.
@calquist: Yes, but every time they ran a name by the attorneys, they discovered it was already registered by another individual/entity. It was part of the drama for that ep.
The price on the website is $20 for 2, not $10 like the Billy says.
The website says the total cost for 2 with shipping is $33.98
@Trai_Dep: Still, regardless, the crap peddlers should have at least gone thru the motions of checking to see if it was okay by Mays' kinfolk.
If for nothing else, plausible deniability.
@drjayphd: I'd surely hope so. Though Sully was more behind the scenes than anything, the show was helping people with their dreams, which is why Billy was doing the show.
So hopefully they find a way to continue the show on to honor Billy and help more people.
@azsumrg1rl: Ah, I watched most of the marathon yesterday, but I dozed in and out. Clearly, I missed major points in that episode.
@Trai_Dep: Oops, strike that last comment. They've already checked that box off.
Damn, those guys are good!
Oh, man, I hope that don't build that building I designed if I should die before it's finished.
The night before Ed McMahon died, my girlfriend and I saw this commercial. I commented on how the movie preview guy had died recently (Don LaFontaine) and said "Hmmm...wonder when Ed McMahon will pass away?".
Little did I know that it would be within 12 hours. I felt somewhat responsible for it.
@600Followers_GitEmSteveDave: My person wants me to kick his urn at the funeral, spilling his ashes everywhere. He thinks it'll be hilarious.
@youbastid: You also have to consider that Billy essentially worked as an actor-for-hire. Someone paid him to film that commercial, so there is also contract obligations for showing the commercial.
@WiglyWorm: ...Or think that because they've seen his blaring face 12,567 times on TV, he's their BFF.
@WiglyWorm: Contrary to popular belief, apostrophes do not mean "OH 'SHIT! Look out! Here come's an 'S!".
His name is Billy MayS, not May. So its Mays' ad.
/gn
@umbriago: They wouldn't "want it that way" if the backlash resulted in a deluge of angry phone calls.
Well this pops up every now and then: