direct response marketing, infomercial productionThis weekend I watched some interesting infomercials, and I'll have to say that the quality of direct response marketing has gone up. I watched one in its entirety for automatic shifting bicycles, and was half tempted to order one. Then I remembered I live in a pretty flat city, and seldom have to shift because of hills. Even though the making of this infomercial was flawless, I couldn't justify the $400 for a bicycle with features I'd use very seldom. The makers of this particular infomercial didn't use all the hype tactics and aggressive pitches that some of them do, so the infomercial advertising for it was pretty entertaining.

Another one I watched was for the Magic Bullet, a small blender that does amazing things, according to those who wrote the infomercial. The setting for the infomercial production was the morning after a big party, and there were lots of people crowded into a kitchen nursing varying degrees of hangovers who needed a nutritional boost from various fruit smoothies. Once the contrived nature of the opening was over, the infomercial wasn't half bad. There is hope...