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Television infomercials

I woke up in the middle of the night last night and had a little trouble getting back to sleep, so I turned on the TV and flipped through a few channels. First thing on the screen was an infomercial on the local ABC affiliate for a program that supposedly gets you rich by trading in the exchanges market. A lady in a newsroom-like setting was asking a suit clearly rehearsed questions that he happily answered, the gist of all of his answers being that it’s easy and everyone, including you personally, will get rich if you follow their instructions. Meanwhile, at the bottom of the screen was the fine print, explaining that NOT everyone, including you personally, will get rich, and in fact could lose all your money. But no one wants to hear that.

I stayed on the channel for about 30 seconds before switching to another channel and seeing another infomercial. This was in the Oprah-like setup, a few people on a stage in front of a Live Studio Audience ™. My brain escaped out my left ear before I could make a mental note of what they were selling, but I’m sure it was available in 5 small payments.

Now, the question is — who actually watches these things? Somebody must be watching them, and buying the products, if they stay on TV. Not that many people, though, or else these things would be on during prime-time (Ross Perot style) — but enough people that half the channels on TV at any given post-2am time are showing infomercials.

It’s ingrained into my head to be skeptical of infomercials — even though I’m not instantly skeptical of commercials. I’m even thinking about going to Burger King for lunch today after seeing countless commercials featuring that creepy mute king playing football or being King Kong. But if I see a product in an infomercial, I will immediately not give it any consideration — even if it’s something I could really use, like a little machine that puts little plastic things back on the end of your shoelaces (wow, that’s such a good idea I might just write a separate post about it sometime soon). I’m sure a lot of people think that way — but not everyone. At what point do you become totally jaded to infomercials? Or maybe I’m just in the minority?

Mon January 16th, 2006 11:33 am

Filed under Advertising & Marketing, Televsion