History of Infomercials

It all began in the 1980’s. Ronald Regan wasCelebrities, as well as a cast of unknowns, found fame
president and one of the many controversial things heand fortune in the newly created infomercial industry.
did in that office was to deregulate the TV industry.There was Jane Fonda who captured lightening in a
Why did he do it? Well, as a conservative Republicanbottle with her exercise tapes simultaneously boosting
he lived and breathed by the “free market rule,”the video business along with the infomercial business.
which stated that the government didn’t belong inThere was Ron Popeil, who marketed every gadget
business, and businesses should live and die by theand device people didn’t even know they needed
success or failure of their own practices and marketand made the switch from printed contact to
forces.electronic contact so successfully he’s still doing it
At the same time, cable TV was just starting itstoday. And there was Kenny Kingston who made the
expansion into the American television marketplace,Psychic Hotline into one of the largest businesses in
and that opened up a huge broadcast venue whichthe world without even having anything to sell! Only in
simply didn’t exist beforehand. Anybody with anyAmerica and only in infomercials could such
experience in the broadcast industry was starting hisoverwhelming success happen so quickly.
own channel and pretty soon cable channels wereSoon, everybody with an idea was trying to come up
commonplace. The most successful channels at thewith the next big thing. As is always the case with any
time were religious based channels which werenew industry, immediately following the initial success
basically used for fundraising purposes. There werethere comes a huge wave of imitators and innovators
literally hundreds of them, from local, small timetrying to cash in. And as always happens – most
reverends and ministers with dubious backgrounds, tofail. There was such a huge crush of wannabes
nationally broadcast spiritual and religious shows, utilizingflooding into the business that production rates
well-known religious figures.skyrocketed and broadcast time became more and
At this point, two things happened. For one, many ofmore expensive and less and less available. Almost
the young, fledgling channels and networks whoovernight, the infomercial industry went from nothing to
counted on ad revenue to keep themselves afloattoday’s enviable haul of billions of dollars annually.
attracted less than stellar ratings and starting goingAnd that’s just in America. Successful infomercials,
under. And at the same time, the religious channelslike Hollywood movies are translated into foreign
started to realize that their fundraising efforts werelanguages and played all around the globe especially
failing miserably in the late evening and wee hours ofwhen they are celebrity driven.
the morning.The newly created infomercial industry was the
Cheap broadcast space was born! And enterprisingprecursor to the Home Shopping Network and QVC
businessmen, more like vultures than saviors, swoopedwhich are essentially 24 hour mini infomercials, product
down and began to chew on the dying carcasses ofdriven, price driven and celebrity driven. And now we
the young cable industry, buying up blocks of cheap,have The Infomercial Channel – 24 hours a day of
late night, off peak broadcast time and running 30infomercials. Gone are the days of loud mouthed
minute or 60 minute, inexpensively producedhucksters, snake oil salesmen yelling into the camera,
commercials refashioned as entertainment programs.hawking the latest “it slices! it dices!” home
Pretty soon there were infomercial superstars.improvement device.