Move over Snuggie, and meet the Snazzy Napper, a pocketed bib that attaches to an eye-mask. Or, get the extra large version and you have a blanket too. Snazzy Napper’s patented technology prevents you from seeing the other people around you staring at you in disbelief. [More]
infomercials
Video Professor Gives Employees Free Trial Offer Of Unpaid Furlough
By 5.3.10
Have we learned all we can from Video Professor’s free training discs? (Well, free for 7 days, then $30 every month.) Or did the professor blow all his cash on legal fees in order to bully critics and attack competitors, as techdirt suggests? Either way, the company called all its employees to a meeting last week and gave them an unpaid summer vacation. [More]
VIDEO: You're Doing It Wrong, A Tribute To As Seen On TV Ads
By 4.22.10
Whatever you’ve been doing, you’ve been doing it wrong. That’s what infomercials teach us, by showing us failing at simple tasks, and then offering the amazing new product to solve it. Showing it in black and white or monochromatic with a big red X seems to drive the point home for some reason. Never mind that these products are usually substandard and make most of their money on over-inflated shipping charges… you need this now! To this end, here’s a tribute to your failure, a remix, set to “Help!” by The Beatles, of 50 different “before” scenes of consumers grinding, chopping, squirting, chopping and wearing their pants intellectively. Can you name all the infomercial products shown? Give it a shot, then scroll down after the jump for the answers. [More]
Video: Too Weak To Move Your Arms? The Food Lift Feeds You!
By 4.9.10
We’ve all experienced the the age-old quandary, “I’m hungry, but I’m too weak/lazy to move my arms, whatever shall I do?” Enter the Food Lift! It’s a revolutionary new product that takes the work out of eating! Simply place the food in the trough and then the dynamo-screw lifts the meal through the tube into your mouth, “like a waiter climbing a staircase.” Try one today! [More]
If You Have Difficulty Operating Eggs, Try An EZ Cracker
By 3.7.10
You know what piece of technology confuses a lot of people? Eggs. At least that’s the impression I get from the existence of the EZ Cracker, a device which cracks and separates eggs for people who are probably too helpless to be allowed near a stove. Oh, and their commercial has–why not–Wendy from the old Snapple commercials. [More]
PajamaJeans Help You Pretend You're Wearing Jeans
By 2.18.10
Sometimes you need to leave the house, for instance to go to the supermarket or to attend a job interview, and let’s face it: that’s when the Snuggie fails you. Until they make the formal Snuggie, there’s at least PajamaJeans. They’re like sweatpants, but disguised as jeans. Sadly they’re only for the ladies right now, so guys will have to stick to sweatpants when they give up on life. [More]
Consumer Reports Science Shows Magic Jack Is Actually Worthwhile
By 1.6.10
Consumer Reports didn’t love Vince’s nuts, and their tests found that the Snuggie sheds like a pack of crazed Labrador retrievers. But in their article about informercial products this month, they did find one that their mad science shows actually works, provides good value, and is useful: the Magic Jack. [More]
We Have No Comment About This Exercise Device, Either
By 10.25.09
Not content with their stranglehold on the creepily suggestive fitness equipment market for women, the people behind the Shake Weight are now marketing the same product…for men.
Consumer Reporter Keeps Buying Things That Catch Fire
By 10.23.09
The Handy Switch, pitched in infomercials by the zombie late Billy Mays, is theoretically a cool product. It’s a wireless light switch that you can install and plug in anywhere. It would be very useful were it not for its unfortunate tendency to burst into flames.
Honor Your Favorite Deceased Infomercial Celebrity This Halloween
By 10.22.09
One of the inexpensive Halloween costume ideas suggested by readers was to dress in honor of the deceased and beloved infomercial pitchman Billy Mays. (This costume is especially simple if you already have dark hair and a beard.) Today, Billy Mays III announced a Billy Mays costume contest, sponsored and judged by his friends and colleagues at Sullivan Productions.
Diet Ads No Longer Able To Use "Results Not Typical" To Get Away With BS-ing You
By 10.6.09
We were taking a look at the new FTC guidelines governing endorsements and testimonials when we noticed something interesting. Advertisers will no longer be able to get away with showing only amazing results from consumer testimonials and presenting them as typical. Under the old rule, they could exclusively show spectacular results if they added the phrase “results not typical.” This is no longer the case, according to the FTC. Now, if they use such testimonials, they will also have to disclose the results that consumers can reasonably expect.
Report: Billy Mays Used Cocaine In His Last Days
By 8.7.09
The Hillsborough County, Florida medical examiner’s office reported this afternoon that toxicology results show boisterous master pitchman Billy Mays had used cocaine sometime in the days before his death. This may have contributed to his fatal heart attack.
Testing Infomercial Beauty Products So You Don't Have To
By 8.6.09
Since Consumer Reports hasn’t yet stepped up and recruited big-hair aficionados and large-breasted side-sleepers to test infomercial beauty products such as Bumpits or the Kush Support, Lemondrop has stepped up to test these products, as well as beauty and weight loss products ranging from the PedEgg to Colonblow.
Snuggie For Dogs Strains Human-Canine Relations Nationwide
By 7.31.09
When you wrap yourself in a Snuggie on a cold evening, does your dog stare up at you with sad, wistful eyes? Even when you’re not holding a bowl of popcorn? It’s time for you to acknowledge that your dog is jealous of your Snuggie.
Reader's Impact Gel Insoles Could Have Walked To His House By Now
By 7.20.09
Why is Adam smashing his hand with this hammer? To show you the frustration he feels because the Impact Gel insoles he ordered over three months ago—and which shipped out over a month ago—haven’t arrived yet.
Slap Chop Remix Becomes Real Informercial
By 7.14.09
The Slap-Chop rap remix is going to become an actual infomercial, reports TMZ. Unfortunately, it seems they couldn’t get the rights clearance to the Breakin clips used in the original and replaced them with stock footage of people breakdancing poorly. They do throw in a bunny costumed person dancing in the street, so that’s cool. I guess we now have a new rule: internet memes trump hooker-beating.
VIDEO: Behind The Scenes At Tristar's Informerical Command Center
By 7.14.09
The reality show “Pitchmen” gave us a behind-the-scenes look at infomercials produced by and starring the delightful duo of Anthony Sullivan and the late Billy Mays. (Oddly, the program made me less wary of infomercial products. But I’m still not about to actually order any.) But wait—there’s more! Check out this video to see what goes on behind the scenes at another direct-sales powerhose, TriStar Products.
