Ridiculous Infomercial Review Blog

In the current infomercial for her Reclaim skin care products, Victoria Principal wheels a cheesy RV around the country, which is dubbed the “Reclaim Mobile Salon.” Principal then uses this behemoth to surprise women with makeovers using her Reclaim products. (By the way, one of the products in the Reclaim line is called the “EyeMazing® Eye Serum”—which has to be one of the most absurd names ever given to an infomercial product.)

As one unsuspecting woman is filming her testimonial for the infomercial, Victoria Principal and host Jules Asner sneak up on the lady, who nearly suffers a stroke when she realizes that the person looming silently behind her is indeed the one-time star of Dallas and the creator of the Principal Secrets skin care line.

This is not the first time that the surprise pop-in has been used on an infomercial.

The infomercials for Tony Horton’s Power 90 and Michael Thurmond’s 6 Week Body Makeover both feature scenes in which a group of users are gathered together in a room, each giving their testimonial about how wonderful the products are, when suddenly and unexpectedly the gurus who saved their lives enter the room and are greeted with many tears and much adulation.

Another memorable use of the celebrity infomercial pop-in occurred during one of the Richard Simmons infomercials. In this infomercial he would sneak up on various women who had lost weight using his products. During a scene in a supermarket, Simmons pretends to absent-mindedly bump his shopping cart into the cart of one of his fans. And before the lady can shout out, “Watch where you’re goin’, numbnuts!” she recognizes the fey fitness guru and responds with the recondite emotional outburst.

Probably the best known, and perhaps strangest, surprise pop-in came during the infomercial for Lori Davis hair products, hosted by Cher in the 1980s. In this infomercial Lori Davis, Cher, and a group of Cher’s friends are sitting on a sofa when suddenly actor Ted Danson pops in for about 20 seconds, eliciting delightful squeals from the ladies. Danson never mentions the hair care products and no one ever tells us whether or not he was ever a Lori Davis customer.

I’ve written previously about the connection between infomercial celebrities and The Learning Annex. Apparently this was not a one-time fluke. The current issue of the The Learning Annex catalog for San Francisco is promoting their “Real Estate & Wealth Expo” and on the cover are three men who have appeared on infomercials. Looming above it all is Donald Trump who is joined by Anthony Robbins (Personal Power, Get the Edge) and George Foreman (Lean Mean Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine).

I have also pointed out the connection between infomercial stars and reality TV shows. So I think I can set forth this hypothesis:

Infomercials + Reality TV + The Learning Annex = Kingdom of the D-Listers

If this equation is valid, then I think we can crown Donald Trump as king of the D-List. He hosts a reality TV show (The Apprentice), speaks at Learning Annex events, and has an infomercial promoting this “Way to Wealth” seminars,

Another person who might be considered D-List royalty under this equation is Matthew Lesko, who has taught a class at The Learning Annex and has recently made an appearance as a member of “The Mob” on the game show 1 vs 100.

There may be other people who fulfill all three parts of this equation, but it’s hard to find out if someone has ever taught a class at The Learning Annex (Ron Jeremy? Miss Cleo?).

No doubt you’ve seen those ubiquituous ads on the Web asking for you vote on various questions ( “Do you like Coke or Pepsi?” “Do you watch MTV or VH1?” ). But when I came across this one asking people to vote for who should get custody of Anna Nicole Smith’s daughter I thought it had to be among the strangest of those ads.

And then I clicked on it and it got even wierder:

Your choices include Larry Birkhead and Howard K Stern, who are indeed claiming paternity of baby Dannielynn. But then in the middle it’s not Zsa Zsa Gabor’s husband…it’s our good friend Ron “The Hedgehog” Jeremy, porn star and host of the ExtenZe infomercial.

Huh??

I think if you got everyone who claimed to be the father of Anna Nicole’s baby in a room together it would sort of look like the cover of the Sgt. Pepper album. So I’m not sure why they had to put Ron Jeremy into the mix.

Well, this advertisement may be in bad taste but at least you can get a $250 gift card out of it!

Update: They’ve apparently pulled the survey but here is a screenshot of the landing page that the original ad took you to:

When I wrote my review of the Dual Action Cleanse infomercial with Klee Irwin I was pleased to find that someone had already uploaded two clips from the infomercial on YouTube. And what clips they were! In these scenes from the program, Klee Irwin talks about being “literally scared” by the sight of his 4-year-old daughter’s poop and then Klee asks a caller named Gary if his chilldren’s turds are bigger than his.

I describe both of these scenes in in my review of Dual Action Cleanse, but they are definately the type of thing that has to be seen to be truly believed—which is why is it such a tragedy that these clips have been pulled from YouTube. I don’t know if someone at Dual Action Cleanse complained or if the user who uploaded the clips had his account suspended for some other reason but the videos from the Dual Action Cleanse infomercial are gone.

This is a major loss as these were some of the most hilarious scenes in infomercial history. If anyone finds these clips available elsewhere on the Web please let me know.

Men, have you been buying books with titles like How To Pick Up Sexy Chicks and The Ugly Man’s Guide to Getting Laid in a desperate attempt to attract the opposite sex?

Well, look no further! Here’s a video clip that will show you how a real operator gets himself the ladies.

In this clip from the Alzare pills infomercial, hostess Jenny Richards takes questions from the studio audience. One smooth character decides to ask “Dancer/Model” Teri out on a date. This has to be among the most awkward moments ever broadcast on an infomercial.

In response Teri looks at her watch. Either she’s trying to arrange a time with the guy or she’s trying to figure out how much longer till this whole thing is over.

Later a lady asks if they make a version of Alzare penis enlargement pills for women! I’m not even sure what that question is supposed to mean.

Check the video at the bottom of my Alzare review page: Alzare