“But wait, there’s more!”
Those four words make up what is arguably the most familiar sentence in television history. Commercials have been around longer than television itself, and the most effective commercials of all time have one thing in common: a pitchman with the ability to make you believe you simply cannot live without an item that you didn’t even know existed until just a few minutes ago. How in the world did we ever make it without the Veg-O-Matic anyway?
The undisputed king of TV pitchmen is Ron Popeil. This affable gentleman has been selling all sorts of kitchen gadgets on TV for decades, a number of which were his own inventions. The aforementioned Veg-O-Matic is just one of dozens of products that Popeil and his company Ronco have hawked via the airwaves over the years. The best pitchmen don’t really come across as pitchmen at all, rather more like a cross between a wise uncle and a helpful neighbor. And that’s where Ron Popeil excels.
Although he wasn’t around anywhere near as long as Popeil, the late Billy Mays was just as successful at selling you the latest and greatest devices you had never heard of before. You surely must have been stranded on a desert island for the past 5 years if you never heard his gravelly voice proclaim “Billy Mays here for…”. Most people either loved him or hated him, but he was a true master at making the sale. Billy recently passed away at the all-too-young age of 50, but he forever changed the way the average person views an infomercial.
It is often said that a good salesman could sell ice to an Eskimo, and I guess that’s true. But the true masters at the art of selling have a way of making you want…well, make that have to buy their products. Both Ron Popeil and Billy Mays were true masters indeed.