Archives for posts with tag: infomercials

old spice pt. 2, starring tom vu

February 24, 10 //
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Proving that not all of the French Press Films team are children of the 80’s, after the thousandth viewing of Old Spice’s recent ad campaign, one of us noticed the inspiration of one Mr. Tom Vu:

Although not quite the ab-endowed manly man of Old Spice’s campaign, you can’t help but hear echoes of Tom Vu in the yacht-riding narration of the “Man Your Man Can Smell Like.” These infomercials, which made real estate broker/poker player Thomas Vu famous in the 1980’s, also feature an ostensibly successful man yelling at us from the TV, plus or minus a yacht and/or a horse. Vu might have the upper hand here, considering his decision to provide testimonials read off of cue cards in between yelling advice at us. Our current favorite Vu-ism? “Are you afraid to ask your Boss for the day off to come to my seminar? Well then you don’t deserve to be rich.”

Below the cut, Tom Vu shows you his waterfall and talks about his loser friends.

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Hosting Your Party

December 15, 09 //
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So thanks to Twitter, we’ve been told a couple dozen of times about this year’s Best Viral Videos, care of Mashable.

We’ve seen most of them, but the one that we hadn’t already been blown away by was the hugely misguided video for Microsoft’s “Windows 7 Launch Party Planning Guide”:

This neutered, oversensitive corporate crap-pile really is amazing in the sheer volume of “don’t get it” on display here. I’d like to say this feels like an infomercial, but I feel like it’s disrespectful to the careful showmanship of Billy Mays and Ron Popeil. In fact, it’s doubly impressive that this isn’t just a bad web video, it’s also a really bad 90’s-era infomercial. Maybe it’s a union thing — where do all the infomercial actors go when everyone just wants to make another “Will It Blend?”

Ron Popeil defined the infomercial for me in the 1990’s. I cannot count how many times I was lured into the drama of “Set It And Forget It.” His pacing and tone were reminiscent of old showmen, and if Ed Valenti invented “But wait, there’s more!”, Popeil brought it home. Maybe it’s just me, but his classic infomercials are seriously compelling, even against a sea of viral videos. Something about Ron’s endless salesmanship and lack of guile that get me excited — as in, HOLY CRAP $39.99?? I brush off most YouTube videos that are longer that 45 seconds, but I would hang around on Sunday mornings for a good two hours of RonCo goodness. Just saying.