"Ha" is my immediate reaction.
You can say I watch a good amount of television. In knowing that, you can also say I watch a good amount of commercials. It's unavoidable. Now 'watch' may be not quite right term when it comes to me and commercials, but nonetheless, I am familiar with all the ins and outs, the gimmicks and catches, and what I think is a good grasp on the reality of selling.
Most commercials are your typical ads that just show the product and people using/interacting in either a comical or dramatic fashion. In those special cases though, you have an 'infomercial' type ad that gives you that instantly recognizable blue screen at the end with a big phone number and web site address. We've seen them, and we should all know that they produced and taped a long time ago, made clear by the almost annoying frequency of airplay the same ad receives. This brings me to the most laughable of all commercial enticements. Given our knowledge of how airing commercials work, they ad wizards still come at us with the usual line, "If you call within the next 15 minutes, we'll double your offer!", or some such nonsense. Who do they think they are convincing with this line? The best example is the notorious 'Sham wow' commercial, where the guy actually says, "call now, because
we can't give this offer all day'. HA! I wonder if people actually call and ask if they have made the 15 minute deadline. Of course they are going to give you that offer. They will give it to you all day everyday if it means you give them the $19.95 they so desire. Honestly, who falls for this? Even if it's just a simple "call now and we'll double your offer", it is such a garbage trick that it makes me ill to hear it coming from my entertainment box. Stop trying to fool me, my dear television, I give you enough love and buy enough of your advertised products that I don't need to be fooled into thinking I'm getting a great deal.I wonder if it is just understood now that this is how these mini-infomercials should be composed. All of those products slung around by that portly bearded guy get doubled or tripled when you 'call now'. My bet is that these wonder products are stacked mile high in a warehouse somewhere and for the big fat American consumer, 2 (or 3) is always better that one, so why not give em away as fast as possible. I will admit, I have purchased advertised items off of the commercials, so I'm not claiming the ads are totally ineffective. The products are crappy, but at least they make you feel like you should want one and could make your life better. That, for some reason, I don't mind. Don't give me blatant falsehoods, rather just pound it into my skull why my house needs your junk (wow, that line could be really misconstrued taken out of context).
On a side note, having actually bought one of these wonder products, it is amazing what the ratio of shipping and handling costs are to the cost of the product itself. These geniuses conveniently put the S&H costs in the tiniest fonts in the very corners of that ending blue screen, but those costs appear bright and centered on that final bill. I recently bought an item for the magical price of $19.95 and then paid $15.90 in shipping and handling to get the shit to my house. Some deal. But I did order in that imaginary 15 minute window, so my order was doubled. How great.
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