The 1980s gave birth to infomercials. You know what they are…. Part information and part commercial. I am sure you have watched many of them.
There was Ron Popeil who sold quite a few products. My favorite was the inside egg scrambler. There was a small platform with a pin on top. Then you place the egg on the pin and the pin would scramble the egg in the shell.
He also sold a pasta maker and other kitchen products. Oh and then there was the smokeless ashtray. I did meet Mr P coming out of a supermarket. He was bigger than life
There were infomercials about knives that cut through frozen bread. Someone else sold pans that were encrusted with diamond dust. They never wore out.
Models like Cindy Crawford sold beauty products that helped you to look younger. Look at how Ms Crawford looks now. Infomercials aired either very late at night or early on Saturday and Sunday mornings.
American Telecast was one of the most successful infomercial companies. Their big hit was Where There’s a Will There’s an A. This was a series of products that could make your child smart. It was very successful.
One day I got a call from this company telling me they had a product that was going to sell millions. The doorbell rang and there was Steve S. He had a Bible in his hand. It was brown and had gold letters that said The Bible. When he came in he handed me the Bible and said. I think you should read this. I said “Well now I do know what a Bible is.”
We went and sat in the dining room. He took out a gadget out of his satchel. There was a little ring that you would put on the door knob. Then there was four cords. Two you hold in your hand and two you hooked to your feet. Mr S got on the floor to demonstrate. It sort of looked like a marionette that was having a bad day. I told him that I would not put my name on it and that it would not sell millions.
I told him I had an idea that would sell millions. I took two wallets and taped them together. Then a I took different colors of construction paper and cut them to represent the six food groups. You would put all of the construction cards in one side of the wallet then when you ate a piece of bread you would move that card to the right side of the wallet. When all the cards were moved over to the right you were done eating for the day.
He asked me, “Did you make this up?” And I told him that I did. He told me he thought that this was interesting and he would like to show it to the American telecast owners.
Several days later, I received a call from the Marsh family. “Would you like to do this product with us? What do you call it?” I said, “Deal A Meal.” “Would you be willing to do a one minute infomercial about this product?” And I said, “Yes. Yes. Yes.” They rented a fancy house in Malibu and made a prototype of the Deal A Meal.
I sat there and looked straight in the camera and told them about my product. There was a lot to talk about in one minute. But I talked fast …lol… so I could get everything in. To be continued…
