As Seen on TV Products: Hype or Hoax?

The phrase “As seen on TV!” can be found on a number of products. These products are those items that are heavily promoted on television ad campaigns. Often, these ad campaigns will promote a mail order process for acquiring the purchase. In some cases, the product will prove so popular that it finds its way to retail store shelves. In the 1970’s, the tagline “As seen on TV!” was added as a marketing tool. This was designed to basically tell people “Yes, this is that same product you saw advertised. It is not a clone.” However, the tagline proved to have a little bump in the road associated with it: comedians on television started to poke fun at it. This has led many people to not taking such products seriously.

This criticism has been levied at the George Foreman Grill and the classic Pocket Fisherman. But, is such an assessment a fair one?

This mockery is, essentially, a means of stating that the products are of low quality and really do not work. Again, this is a harsh assessment that may not truly be based in any semblance of reality. So, why is there such negative sentiment associated with these products? Part of the reason has to do with a number of over the top and silly products that are promoted via late night television commercials. And, yes, there are a small percentage of silly products that do not work. Then, there are odd products that do actually work but the need for them may seem dubious. Common examples of this would be automatic card shufflers and smokeless ashtrays. Such odd pop cultural artifacts are what have led to the dismissive assessment of products that proudly proclaim they can be seen on TV.

Of course, there have been some truly awful products that have been promoted via television. These products definitely fall under the category of a hoax. The number of these weak products is relatively small. But, they have led many people to assume that all products advertised on television are hoaxes. Once again, this is a false assessment that poses a black cloud over some very high quality products.

This is unfortunate because there are a number of excellent products available that are advertised on television. As such, it is best to look towards reliable reviews of products prior to assessing whether or not the products have value as opposed to looking at the advertising taglines they use. Let this be your guide and you will not discover any problems in your purchasing.