In the late 1990s, most people thought they understood what an infomercial was. If you worked in DRTV, you were expected to sell products—fitness equipment, kitchen gadgets, skin creams—nothing more, nothing less.
But I believed the format could do something bigger.
In 1997 and 1998, stories about nursing home neglect were starting to surface in a serious way. Time magazine had run a troubling piece documenting abuse and neglect of the elderly. Jury verdicts—especially in Texas—were climbing rapidly, with settlements and awards reaching levels that forced people to pay attention.
What struck me wasn’t just the size of the verdicts. It was how little the public understood what was actually happening inside some nursing facilities—and how often families were told that bedsores, malnutrition, amputations, and fatal falls were simply “part of getting old.”
That disconnect is what led to Beyond the Golden Years.
Why I Wanted This to Look Like a PSA, Not an Ad
At First Madison Communications, my goal was never to turn serious issues into spectacle. From the beginning, I told our team we were not making a hard-sell infomercial. We were making something that looked and felt like a long-form public service announcement.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:
my intent was to make it look like a long-form PSA.
We structured the program around education:
- Roundtable discussions with real experts from state aging and health departments
- Nurses, family practitioners, and investigators explaining the warning signs of neglect
- A human story told quietly, in a familiar setting—a family barbecue, with an elderly mother present
The tone mattered. If this felt exploitative, it would fail. If it felt sincere, people would stay with us for 28 minutes—and they did.
Expanding Infomercials into the Service Industry
Up until that point, DRTV had rarely been used for professional services in a thoughtful way. Legal advertising existed, of course, but usually in short-form, high-volume executions.
What we did differently was build a cookie-cutter long-form format that could be localized without losing credibility.
Each version of Beyond the Golden Years allowed a local attorney to deliver the call to action at the end of the program. Calls to the 800 number didn’t go to a call center—they were routed directly to that attorney’s office.
Media placement was intentional and disciplined:
- $10,000–$20,000 per market per month
- 20–40 airings per week depending on the market
- Broadcast affiliates, regional cable, and community access
Dallas firm Dippel & MacArthur was one of the first to participate. During a run on WFAA Channel 8, they generated roughly 30–40 calls—strong results for an attorney who had never advertised on television before.
More important to me than the call volume was the feedback: attorneys told me the show felt tasteful. Families told us it was the first time they realized neglect wasn’t inevitable.
Passing the Bar—and Changing Minds
One of the biggest unknowns at the time was regulation. This was the first 28-minute legal infomercial of its kind in Texas, and it went through full review by the State Bar Advertising Review Committee.
It passed.
In fact, bar officials openly said they expected to see more programs like it.
I understood why lawyers were nervous. No one wanted to be associated with gimmicks. But once the program aired, that concern faded. Even advocacy groups acknowledged that the experts on the show “told it like it is.”
Yes, the attorneys were looking for clients—but they were also helping surface an epidemic that had gone largely unchallenged.
The Results Were Bigger Than Marketing
What happened next was impossible to ignore.
As Beyond the Golden Years aired across Texas and neighboring states:
Nursing home lawsuits increased Jury awards climbed sharply Families began questioning explanations they had previously accepted
According to trial data reported at the time, average nursing home verdicts in Texas jumped from six figures to eight figures in just a few years. The infomercial didn’t create those cases—but it helped educate people that accountability was possible.
One attorney told us that 95% of callers didn’t even need legal representation. They needed information. They needed to know where to turn. To me, that validated everything we were trying to do.
Looking Back
Today, everyone talks about “purpose-driven marketing” and “educational content.” In 1998, we didn’t have those phrases. We just knew that if you respected the audience and used the DRTV format responsibly, it could be a force for something more than sales.
Beyond the Golden Years proved that infomercials didn’t have to be disposable. They could inform, challenge, and still deliver results.
That experience shaped how I’ve thought about direct response ever since.
Leave a Reply