Billy Mays, the most successful direct-response salesman in TV history, is co-starring in a new Discovery Channel reality show, "Pitchmen," which debuts April 15. You may recall Mays'
efforts for such products as OxiClean, Kaboom, Mighty Putty, the Awesome Auger and the Samurai Shark sharpener. You may even have a few of them occupying shelf space.
Mays believes in
the hard sell, in buttonholing, in arm-twisting. "I cut through the noise, through the clutter," he says. "People
want to hear the pitch." He says he's dialed down his
approach at times but people wonder what's wrong with him. "We do the most in-your-face approach out there because it works," he says. "You just have to look at the numbers,"
which is, you'll recall, the way they justified the
"Ring Around the Collar" campaign.
"Pitchmen"
also features "fellow TV yell-and-seller" Anthony Sullivan (of Swivel Sweeper fame), writes Dan Neil, and follows the pair as they evaluate new products and make short-form infomercials for
them. Among the products Mays and Sullivan will ballyhoo are the Impact Gel shoe inserts and the Tool Band-it magnetized armband that holds tools while you work.
"Cultural
historians would do well to mark the show's premiere as the moment when the last scorched stone fell from the wall separating art and commerce," Neil writes
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