2/26/2009 - Vince with Slap Chop

I'm an infomercial addict and it's been a while since I've seen a really good one. I think the last good one I've seen until recently was the Ronco knives. Even though they were a direct copy of the Ginzu knives, Ron Popeil can still sell them as if they were his own product. Ever since that last infomercial by Ron, all we have seen are "mini-infomercials" (ones that don't go for a whole half hour) that mostly feature Billy Mays, a loud-mouth third-rate salesman in my opinion.

Then came Vince with the ShamWow. Even though it's still a mini-infomercial, and absorbent shammies aren't new, Vince is what makes it a great infomercial. He speaks with such speed, he sounds like an auctioneer. And it sounds like he isn't going from a script: a lot of it sounds ad-libbed. Take for example, "It's made in Germany... you know the Germans make good stuff." I also love his little dig at Ron Popeil when he says near the end "we can't do this all day". Ron is famous for giving an initially large price for the product only to lower the price five or six times to its final cost.

It was Vince's first infomercial and already he seemed like a natural. His instant popularity would seen lead to selling another product: the Slap Chop. He has the same delivery style and the same unnecessary headset microphone. This product is also nothing new, but the infomercial is already one of my favorites:



Reasons why I love this infomercial:

1) "I love pizza too, but once in a while get the veggies in."
2) "Stop having a boring tuna, stop having a boring life."
3) The sparkle effects.
4) The perfect backwards toss into the sink.
5) "Life's hard as it is, you don't want to cry anymore."
6) The unnecessary arrow pointing to the onion skin.
7) "Fettuccine, linguine, martini, bikini."
8) The "Beware of imitators" disclaimer when the Slap Chop itself is an imitator.

and of course

9) "You're gonna love my nuts."