A Few Words About Infomercials

I must now swear you to secrecy.  Raise your right hand and repeat after me: I, (your name here),  solemnly swear, to take to my grave, the contents of this post.  OK. Now we are ready to proceed.

I love infomercials.  I love everything about them.  The terrible products, the ridiculous and unrealistic claims, the bad quality of the filming, atrocious sound quality and most of all, the unmitigated gall of the sales pitch.  I watch with fascination as the product is demonstrated and the LIVE (as opposed to dead) audience oohs and aahs with amazement.  Who doesn't need more stuff in their life?

I attribute the progression to infomercials to Ron Popeil, although I think De-regulation of the industry a la Ronald Regan had something to do with it too. Let's be clear, I have not researched this, this is just the way I remember it.  What started with 60 second spots of advertisement became, 30 minutes of BUY BUY BUY now, operators are standing by now!  Think back:  The Ron Popeil Pocket Fisherman, Chop-O-Matic and the like.  Remember?  I don't remember how old I was, but I remember thinking, "What a bizarre idea!"  But, I was fascinated and stopped to watch the commercials most of the time.  Who can forget, "But wait, there's more!"   Who ever knew they needed a bamboo steamer?

Infomercials are the best and the worst of American advertising.  Face it:  if we didn't watch and ultimately buy the products, infomercials would never have become part of our daily lives.  We want to believe the next new miracle product can be ours at a reasonable price.  Even knowing, 'Caveat emptor", we continue to look for the too good to be true solution to a problem we didn't know we had until we watched them demonstrate their wares. Isn't this the ultimate in optimism?  Or is it?  What about, "A sucker is born every minute."  Oh.  I don't like the thought of that, but I know there is a portion of the population who believes everything, they read, see or hear, and they are the target of the unscrupulous salesperson.  Can we protect these people from themselves or is the disclaimer at the end of the infomercial enough?

I'm going to have to think about this.  With my Genie Bra in place, and Resurgence skin care system on my face, I'll go into the kitchen use my Chop-O-Matic, cook up an omelet in my Orgreenic pan so I can work out with the Brazilian Butt Lift team.  No one's going to make a sucker out of me.