As I sit here realizing in a few hours I will be getting ready to give up attempting sleep and head to my couch to engage in endless informercial watching, I thought it was time to step my game up and do myself one better. I decided it’s time to research these amazing products. I do have a secret dream of one day selling products (free preview at the bottom of my audition to be the next star of the infomercial). I can’t deny I come from a family who embraces the infomercial product… magic bullet- check, george foreman grill- you helped push this revolution in the right direction, big city slider- thanks for coming to school with me, perfect pancake- you never really were that perfect, and the list goes on. But many of these products are so amazing and in large part due to the technology that they entail. First I’ll start you out with a solid site for a list of every product and some reviews of products you’ve probably come across at some point in your life. For products here I’m going to stick with seemingly technological or scientific breakthroughs because lets face it a Snuggie doesn’t have a lot of tech design that goes into it (okay I’ll be honest, most don’t have true technical appeal… see also windshield wonder).
First let’s start with one of my favorites that is clearly a design beyond all possibilities from the past, that is… the Tiddy Bear.
Now I’ll admit, this was a brilliant idea. I often times find myself very irritated by what the seat belt is doing, but we know safety comes first. So using a material that is comfortable is the first key for a product like this. Next is how something like that can actually hold correctly, the reason the bear design works is because the legs can really help grab on to the part of body that real needs the comfort and it’s much better than the material used for a seatbelt. Sure, you can go to build-a-bear make something similar on your own or even use household products, but it can’t be denied when this product originally hit the market, there was no way you were insane enough to think of it for yourself.
Next up on the list of greatness I will go with a product I’ve seen firsthand, the always strong Magic Bullet. The bullet is okay, but it’s the technology of the speed at which it does things that makes it great. I mean how is it possible to either chop vegetables or turn it completely into a paste within 10 seconds of each other? It’s a good product, it’ll get the job done, but definitely hit or miss in the final product you are hoping to deliver. Of course there is now the Magic Bullet Express giving new options for the same great product and showing how you can condense many products into a single one.
I’ll finish with my favorite, and I think you may be familiar with it yourself…
One of the original and best creators of all that is an infomercial product, Ron Popeil, has brought brilliance over the years with his rotisseries. These are usually highly rated and with the spinning system usually times out pretty well for the final product. The compact nature of such a device helps make it portable, easy to use, easy to clean, and adds an additional entertainment opportunity of watching your chicken, burgers, or random meat circle over and over while delicious juices drip down.
Alright so, I didn’t talk about a ton of technology involved in them, but they all have it and keep evolving year after year into upgraded models of the same product, computers do it why can’t infomercials!?
And as promised, I present to you my infomercial attempt (a couple excuses, I once got a complaint for being too loud by “walking too much” so I had to contain some volume within and lack of a good location and simple webcam)…
