Billy Mays: To Pitch or Not To Pitch . . .
There is no doubt (as I stated in my recent interview with Sinead Carew of Reuters news service) that television infomercial “pitchman” Billy Mays, who recently passed away, was an enthusiastic, and very effective “pitchman”. He will be greatly missed.
However, the continuous airing of the spots hosted by Billy has become an ongoing controversy. The controversy seems to center around whether or not it is appropriate to continue airing his infomercials (mostly the short form spots).
Some feel that it is wrong and even unethical to continue airing his commercials. Also it casts yet another negative light on an industry which continues to have a questionable reputation. Many are asking; Are his clients (or his estate) simply trying to take advantage of the media awareness generated by his death? Do they really need to make sales that badly? If not, why are they running his commercials at such high frequency levels?
Others wonder if there might be a backlash. Will viewers be turned-off by what may be perceived as trying to “squeeze” yet one more sale out of Billy’s pitches? Will a lower MER cause his commercials to be pulled off the air?
A case could be made that we are still selling Michael Jacksons songs and (last time I looked) DVDs of Charlie’s Angles (Farrah Fawcett) are still being sold, but somehow those seem different.
Maybe the answer to the question about whether or not Billy should continue pitching (or not) will ultimately be determined by the viewers – as is always the case in Direct Response.
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