Infomercials bring us some of the greatest innovations of our time. Where else can an inventor bring a product to the masses so quickly and efficiently? But of course there are always those that take advantage of a good thing.
In the early days of infomercials we saw a lot of people producting shows that were meant to look like a news show, or a consumer report on a specific product or service…only to find that it was really a paid program. We then created the National Infomercial Marketing Association (now called The Electronic Retailing Association ERA) to help self police our industry. Many of us we all to happy to bring new products to the market using this exciting new format, which worked just as well if not better when called out as a commercail.
Cut to the new internet retailing and blogging of Infomercial and other As Seen On TV products and we see some of the same type of explotation and mockery of conumser faith in our industry. We have seen numerous Infomercial Product Review sites and blogs that are really just bad attempts to gain consumer trust and dollars. This trend will not last so we say to you consumers looking to find out what consumers really think about a product or service…do you homework. If the site or blog is selling ads for the same product it reviews, ask yourself if that makes a difference.
We believe that 90% of the products on television do exactly what they say they will do…and that the deal offered is worth every penny paid, but when it comes to the blogs and websites selling some of these products…it is like the television infomercial wild wild west of the late 1980’s and we all know the lasting damage a very few black hats caused for the industry. The word ”Infomercial” and those in the business are still trying to clean up from that mess.
