Brian Stelter
The pitchman Billy Mays died last month, but on television he continues to hawk do-it-yourself home repair kits and yard tools day and night.
Mays?s mesmerising infomercials?for products such a s Mighty Putty (?Build, restore, repair!?) and the Awesome Auger (?Take the hard work out of yard work?)?are being put back into heavy commercial rotation, two weeks after he died at the age of 50. Mays? business associates say without hesitation that it?s what he would have wanted.
Mays is starring in a new infomercial for a wireless speakerphone called Jupiter Jack, by the company TeleBrands, that was taped shortly before his death on June 28, apparently of a heart attack.
Another infomercial, for Mighty Putty?s new Superpack of epoxies, began on television recently, according to Media Enterprises, a firm that specialises in direct-response marketing.
?Broken! Busted! Everybody has something to repair. Before buying new, let Mighty Putty fix it for you,? Mays shouts in the advertisement, which was conveniently previewed on the web couple of days back.
Another ad for Mighty Putty ?recorded shortly before Mays? death ?will have its premiere soon.
Is it creepy to see Mays still shilling? Remy Stern, the author of a book about the infomercial industry titled ?But, Wait … There?s More!,? thinks so. But is it surprising? Not at all.
?For the infomercial guys, any press is good press,? Stern said.
And already there are indications that the products Mays sold so convincingly are receiving a lift in sales.
?People are ordering,? said Bill McAlister, president of Media Enterprises, in an interview. He said that the web site for the Superpack had been viewed 14 million times since the infomercial?s premiere online on Saturday. He cited an increase in sales ?between 20% and 30% compared to before he died.?
Any viewer who has ever heard of the stain remover OxiClean?and who hasn?t??probably has Mays to thank. He had ?reached the very pinnacle of the pitchman industry in the last year,? Stern said. He starred in a Discovery Channel series, ?Pitchmen,? which documented his search for the next big as-seen-on-television product. He started his own company and invested in some of the products he was pitching.
Many of Mays? infomercials were taken off TV after his death. His relatives, who will receive royalties from the infomercials, announced recently that they would permit his clients to continue running his spots and using his likeness on products.
In a statement, Mays? widow, Deborah, said, ?Billy believed in every product he sold, and he loved nothing more than bringing helpful products to people at a great savings.? Mays? lawyer, Roger Pliakas, said the announcement was necessary to signal to television networks that they could resume running the ads.
?The networks weren?t going to run anything until the family signed off,? Pliakas said in an interview. The networks that covered Mays? death as a news story were particularly resistant about the commercials, he added, so the family?s statement sought to ?tell the networks what our position was.?
Pliakas said there was no debate among the family members about the resumption. ?This is what we really feel Billy would have wanted to do,? he said, adding, ?We felt we could let the public decide whether it was appropriate or not.?