There are all types of pitchmen in direct-response marketing.  Billy Mays, Anthony Sullivan, and even Vince Offer (better known as “The Sham-Wow Guy”) have all become celebrities in their own right, simply by virtue of being top infomercial pitchmen. Other pitchmen are famous for promoting their own products:  Ron Popeil, Jack LaLanne, Richard Simmons, Susan Powter, Matthew Lesko, and Richard Sherer (the Video Professor) take the airwaves to sell their own programs and inventions.   Infomercial exercise videos have launched their own field of stardom with fitness experts including Billy Blanks, Shaun T, and Chalean Johnson selling challenging exercise routines to devoted fans.

Long before pitchmen became famous simply for being the visible, personable face of an infomercial product, marketers knew the importance of using a famous face to endorse their products.  Before pitchmen became celebrities, celebrities became pitchmen.

Stardom sells, and the following lists includes some of the most famous faces to launch infomercial celebrity endorsements.

• Models – Cindy Crawford (Meaningful Beauty), Christie Brinkley (Total Gym), Daisy Fuentes (Winsor Pilates), Vanessa Williams (ProActiv), Elle Macpherson (ProActiv)
• Athletes – George Foreman (George Foreman Grill and Everyday and More Cleaner), Hulk Hogan (Hulk Hogan Ultimate Grill)
• MMA – Chuck Liddell (JackRack), Georges St. Pierre (Rip60), Randy Couture (Tower 200)
• Actors/Actresses – Chuck Norris (Total Gym), Mario Lopez (Ultraflex), Barry Williams/”Greg Brady” (TimeLife70′s Music Explosion), Susan Lucci (Malibu Pilates)
• Singers/Musicians – Jessica Simpson (ProActiv), Katy Perry (ProActiv), Justin Bieber (ProActiv)

As I look through this list, I’m noticing that ProActiv Acne Solution really seems to have a corner on the celebrity pitchman market.  I mean, who doesn’t sell this stuff?  Just for fun, I’ll go ahead and post a list of Celebrities with Formerly Bad Skin who’ve appeared in ProActiv commercials:

• Julianne Hough – Dancing with the Stars
• Jenna Fischer – The Office
• Alyssa Milano – Who’s the Boss, Charmed
• Vanessa Williams – singer, actress, model, disgraced former Miss America
• Justin Bieber – singer
• Jessica Simpson – singer
• Katy Perry – singer
• Alicia Keys – singer
• Mandy Moore – singer, actress
• Jennifer Love Hewitt – actress
• Kelly Clarkson – American Idol, singer
• Avril Lavigne – singer

Celebrity endorsements lend a familiar face to the infomercial pitch, giving television viewers a sense of trust and a brush with fame.  After all, infomercial products are designed to make our lives easier, and if it’s good enough for those accustomed to a life of luxury and the finer things, shouldn’t it be good enough for us?

Welcome to the first post of 2011!  We at Way Back Wednesday and Seen on TV Express wish you a very happy, prosperous, and fulfilling new year.

Of course, the new year brings with it a slew of resolutions, including the #1 New Year’s Resolution of all time–to lose weight and get in shape.  Gyms and fitness centers, much like my post-holiday jeans, are bursting at the seams.  Even though the crowds will thin much more quickly than the actual gym patrons themselves, adults of this generation are more fitness conscious than ever before, shaped by a childhood that emphasized activity and exercise.  Whereas America today is plagued by an epidemic of childhood obesity, the 1980′s encouraged fitness among children.  Just check out these gender-specific workout kits seen on TV in the era that first made leg warmers hot.

For the girls was Get in Shape Girl, with five different exercise kits to choose from:

Now, I remember that the Way Back Little Sister had the ribbon gymnastics kit, and she runs actual half-marathons and stuff–for fun–so I’m sure this early introduction to fitness had an impact on her future dedication to staying in shape.

(Note:  I tried a half-marathon once.  It was most assuredly NOT fun.)

For the boys, there is no better way to bulk up than with the help of WWF (pre-WWE) superstar Hulk Hogan:

I must admit, I’m a bit confused as to why Hulk Hogan’s Hulkamania Workout Set was promoted by Mr. Wonderful, Paul Orndorff, rather than the Hulkster himself, but that is a mystery that may never be solved.

What do these workout kits have in common?  Wall posters, cassette tapes, and–most importantly–sweatbands and wristbands!  You simply cannot get a good workout without elasticized terry cloth strapped around your head and arms.  It’s a fact.

Moving on from Kid Fitness – The Flex Belt, Gym Flex, Total Gym and others provide options for Adults

These days, Hulk Hogan has moved from the gym to the kitchen with his Hulk Hogan Ultimate Grill, but those of us who grew up on kiddie workouts can maintain our fitness lifestyles with today’s workout equipment for adults.  That old step from your Jane Fonda step aerobics video has been reinvented as the GymFlex, which converts from a step to a bench to an incline and contains straps, attachments, bars, and handles for a total body strength training workout.  The Total Gym also allows you to strengthen and tone your entire body at home, giving you an effective workout while allowing you to avoid the hoards of New Years Resolutioners that will hog all the treadmills and exercise machines at the local gym.  Finally, the FDA-cleared Flex Belt allows you to maximize your results by toning your abs even when you aren’t actively working out.

Of course, if your workout style is more Mr. Belvedere than Mr. Wonderful, there’s always the Perfect Fit Button and Pajama Jeans to get you through until next year’s New Year’s Resolutions come knocking.

With New Year’s Resolutions for fitness and weight loss quickly approaching, it is time for most of us to go on that final holiday calorie splurge just before we have to dust off the Total Gym or Bowflex or pop P90x into the DVD player in an effort to incinerate our fat and fit back into our pre-holiday pants.

Before we can think about how we can get fit quickly, however, we have to consider how to obtain maximum caloric overload in minimal time.  I mean, after all, once January 1 hits, we will never eat anything bad for us again.  NEVER.  I mean it this time!!

Now, if we still lived in the 1980′s, before we popped a Jane Fonda workout tape in the VCR (or BetaMax) we could make simple, yet tasty snacks–even “apple pie” in as little as two minutes with the SuperSnacker?

How do I know the SuperSnacker is the perfect snack-making appliance?  Everyone’s favorite butler, Mr. Belvedere, told me so.

(Cue theme music.)

Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t equate flaky pie crust with toast.  I’m pretty sure if I brought apple pie filling stuffed between two slices of toast to our Christmas dinner and called it “apple pie,” the “hungry hooligans” in our family would run me out of town.  And if I said it was “just like mom used to make,” I’d be kicked out of the family forever–and I can’t remember my mom ever making an apple pie.

The “Supah Snackah,” as Mr. Belvedere* so aggressively calls it, is for so much more than Apple Toast Pie, though:

Now, I’m not thinking I’d use my SuperSnacker for making eggs or muffins, but I do think that this kind of infomercial kitchen product was a predecessor of modern conveniences like the Hulk Hogan Ultimate Grill.  Indoor countertop grills are so common now that I don’t know how I ever lived without one.   I’m just not sure I’d ever use it for pie.

At least, not in the new year.

I mean it this time.

*I know Mr. Belvedere has a real name.  It’s Christopher Hewett.  But let’s face it–if I called him that, would you have the faintest idea who I was talking about?