Infomercial impresario A.J. Khubani was in Los Angeles last week evaluating the work of 44 inventors who'd like their creations to be the next Snuggie or Ginzu knife. He and three other judges sat at
a table in a conference room at the Marriott and watch a passing parade of newfangled pet leashes, floor mats, home exercise devices, skin creams, pillows, umbrellas, coffee mugs, kitty litter
strainers, eyelash curlers and the like, Michael Hiltzik reports.
The inventors' "hope was to receive the Nod That Leads To Wealth from Khubani, the founder and chief executive of
Telebrands," he writes.
One man was peddling a "do it yourself facelift" cream; two women promoted a chain you could use to fasten your purse to a chair, thwarting thieves. And then
there was Scott Heim, a former marketing executive at Kimberly-Clark and DowBrands, who has a disposable cloth that dry-cleans garments in home dryers.
"Heim told me he's been
body-checked away from mega-retailers Wal-Mart and Target by the machinations of big consumer-goods companies, which ferociously protect shelf allocations," writes Hiltzik.
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