As Seen on TV Best Sellers

Infomercial products are designed to fill a need, solve a problem, minimize an annoyance.  The inventors of these As Seen on TV product innovations have an uncanny ability to find television viewers’ biggest pet peeves and market a solution.  Describing the invention of the Snuggie, one infomercial product review website noted,  “One day a guy put on his robe backwards and said, ‘I want a Porsche.’”  With over 20 million Snuggies sold in 2009 alone . . . well, that’s a lot of Porsches.

When an infomercial hits big, it REALLY hits big.  According to several sources, the television infomercial business, or Direct Response Television (DRTV) marketing, is a $300 billion dollar industry.  Forbes.com cites Remy Stern, author of But Wait . . . There’s More, in saying that the direct response marketing industry is “larger than the film, music and video game industries combined.”  So in an arena filled with failed ideas, which As Seen on TV products are generating the most revenue?

Top Ten Infomercial Products and As Seen on TV Products

A Forbes.com article released by ABC News reveals the ten most successful television infomercial products as determined by California-based research firm Jordan Whitney.  This list is based on sales figures from Nov. 2009 to Nov. 2010:

1. Bowflex Home Gym
2. Carleton Sheets Real Estate Tutorial
3. Proactiv Solution Acne Treatment
4. Ronco Showtime Rotisserie Pro Electric Rotisserie Oven
5. Sharper Image Ionic Breeze Air Purifier
6. The Firm Bodybuilding Fitness Videos
7. Walk Away the Pounds for Abs Weight Loss System
8. Gazelle Freestyle Home Exercise Equipment
9. Total Gym Challenge Home Gym
10. Foodsaver Food Vacuum Packaging Machine

Though this list provides the most successful products for last year, the As Seen on TV best sellers are constantly evolving.  In fact, infomercial researchers at Jordan Whitney also list weekly top sellers.  Last week’s best selling As Seen on TV products included mostly fitness and personal care products:

1. P90X
2. Insanity
3. No!No! Hair
4. Six Week Body Makeover
5. Turbo Fire
6. Zumba
7. Genie Bra
8. Wen Hair Care
9. Cindy Crawford’s Meaningful Beauty
10. Sensa Weight Loss System

Hm.  That list looks suspiciously like the As Seen on TV products in our Spring Fever Series.

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?

Mixed Martial Arts, or MMA, has become really big news in recent years.  The UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) has come a long way from its early beginnings when it was misunderstood and compared with bare knuckle, no-holds-barred brawls.  As people begin to understand the true martial arts and wrestling roots of MMA, however, the sport has enjoyed increasing popularity.  This phenomenon spawned MMA-inspired apparel created by Tap Out, RVCA, and Affliction.  Once found only through online MMA specialty shops, you can now find these t-shirts in any mall.  The UFC, once condemned as a brutal sport of barroom brawlers, has launched its highly-trained fighters into household names.  In fact, The SciMark Report indicates that MMA has inspired a new trend in fitness equipment.  Acclaimed mixed martial artists and UFC fighters Randy Couture, Rich Franklin, and Bas Ruten are all currently endorsing infomercial fitness equipment.

So what does all of this have to do with Way Back Wednesday?  As a huge MMA fan, I am really interested in the unprecedented growth of this sport.  With so many MMA standouts selling exercise equipment through television marketing, I started thinking about the beginnings of martial arts as an infomercial fitness phenomenon.

One of the first martial-arts inspired fitness trends seen on TV was Tae Bo, marketed by fitness guru Billy Blanks.  Designed as a blend of Tae Kwon Do, boxing, and aerobics, Tae Bo launched a cardio kickboxing craze.  Even after the success of the initial Tae Bo series in the late 1990′s, Tae Bo continued to evolve, with Billy Blanks expanding the series to include Amped, T3, and Boot Camp videos and DVDs.   Take a look at this clip from the original Tae Bo Basic video:

Now, I’ll admit that I was an owner of this original series, and these exercise videos did, in fact, work really well.  The major drawback was that I felt like I had to constantly avert my eyes from Billy Blanks’s barely covered chest (I think it was cold in that studio) and from his embarrassingly tight, shiny pants.  That’s more information about Billy Blanks than I need.

The martial arts inspiration continued with everyone’s favorite roundhouse kickin’  Texas Ranger, Chuck Norris, and his Total Gym.  Even Tony Horton’s P90x includes a martial arts element through its Kenpo X routine.  As the pure martial arts evolve into the highly popular mixed martial arts, Randy Couture, UFC Hall of Famer and repeat champion in two weight classes, comes on the scene with the Tower 200.  Touted as “The Ultimate Workout,” the Tower 200 attaches itself to the fame of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and its most prized fighter.

As MMA continues to grow, I’ll be interested to see how its popularity further impacts fitness trends.