Tuesday, January 5, 2010

As Seen on TV = As Seen in My House


"Set it and forget it"!

"It will have you saying WOW every time"!

If you spend any amount of time watching TV, you likely recognize these taglines from popular infomercials.

Infomercials are one of my guilty pleasures. I am a sucker for all things "As Seen on TV." From the slick salespeople to the gimmick bonus offers, I fall for them over and over again.


I will watch certain infomercials repeatedly for the pure entertainment. My favorite infomercial right now is for the GT Xpress cooking gadget. Love that sales pitch lady and, of course, I have one so I have to pick up her recipes like Stuffed Soup that she demonstrates during the presentation. I mean, come on! How can you resist a product that delivers delicacies like stuffed soup and cakes with mini candy bars hidden in the middle?


I can remember watching the infomercial for the Ronco Food Dehydrator over and over again as a little girl in the late 80's. I wanted to make the fruit roll ups and beef jerky so badly that they demomstrated! I also remember that half way through the presentation he would stop to demo his spray on hair product for balding men and his pocket fishing rod for outdoorsmen on the go. This man is a genius.


My first infomercial purchase that I can remember was buying this little makeup cube that was pitched by so called celebrity make up artist, Victoria Jackson. If I recall correctly, this little cube of makeup cost me almost $80. I was in high school at the time and making $5.75 per hour working at Alco. That's a lot of after school hours to get this prized baby in my hands. I was sure that I would have celebrity worthy makeup results! Any of you that knew me in high school know that was not the result. The makeup in this cube was greasy, thick and nasty. I think I wore the makeup once and then the cube went untouched.

I have found some As Seen on TV products that do live up to their hype. I find that I either love or hate the products and it's about a 50% success ratio.

I am the ashamed owner of a wide variety of infomercial hyped products. Everything from the Total Gym to the Pedi-Egg. Here are some of the products I have collected for over the years. Staggering isn't it?


I still haven't gotten the food dehydrator that I've been pining over all these years. I'm not too keen on the amount of space it would take up.However, looking for an image of the commercial online, I found that the original 80's infomercial is on Youtube. Of course I had to watch it again and revisit the man and commercial that originally got me hooked.

What "As Seen on TV" products have you fallen for? Any good ones that I should add to my collection or bad ones I should stay away from?

4 comments:

  1. Looks like you've tried just aboout all of them! LOL

    Question for you Sunflower - What products really didn't work as advertised or were you really unhappy with? On the flip side, any that worked better than you expected?

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  2. Good question Anon!

    Worst: The product that really disappointed me, that is still on the market, is the BumpIt. I really wanted to like this one but it didn't work with my hair type. The "teeth" at the top are much too long and stick through my hair and are very visible. If I had thick hair, it might work better. I tried to use these but never left the house with them in my hair and don't even know where they are now.

    Best: I really like the Strap Perfect. It is a staple in the summer for wearing under tank tops and it really did give some additional lift like it claims in the commercial. We also use the Hercules Hooks often and they are wonderful! Easy to push into the wall, hold a heavy object and don't leave a huge hole in the wall like drywall screws can.

    Thanks for the comment and questions!!

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  3. I was also going to ask what kind of experience you had with the BumpIts! Looks as if I may not purchase them afterall!!! I am really glad to see the Strap Perfect was everything as expected. I will go ahead and purchase this item!!! Thanks for the info!

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  4. I've heard that you can use those butterfly shaped paperclips in place of the strap perfect for a cheaper soluation. I haven't tried it but it might be worth a shot.

    Thanks for the comment!

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