Ridiculous Infomercial Review Blog

The Ridiculous Infomercial Review is a humor website. Despite what some people may assume, we are not on any kind of crusade to expose infomercial scams.

Nonetheless, I didn’t want to let this piece of news go by without comment. Kevin Trudeau has been on more TV infomercials for about as long as anyone I can think of. He was a prominent pitchman during the infomercial “golden age” of the late 80s/early 90s and his ads are still airing today.

On November 16, Kevin Trudeau was held in contempt of court. This was because he was found to have violated an earlier court injunction from 2004. That “permanent injunction” banned Trudeau from selling products via infomercial. However, it contained an exception for promoting books, as long as Trudeau did not misrepresent the content of the books. The U.S. District Court judge ruled that Trudeau misrepresented his book The Weight Loss Cure ‘They’ Don’t Want You to Know About by claiming the diet was “easy.”

No punishment has yet been determined for Kevin Trudeau. Perhaps this is finally the end of Mr. Trudeau’s reign as a fixture on TV infomercials.

Otherwise, Kevin Trudeau will use this ruling to his advantage, claiming that “They”—the Government, Big Pharma, the Diet Industry, the AMA—are trying to suppress him from speaking out about natural health and diet cures. Paranoia has been Trudeau’s most prominent marketing tactic lately.

For more info, check out this post from the Consumerist detailing just how “easy” Kevin Trudeau’s weight loss cure really is.

Probably the most famous catch phrase to come from an infomercial is “Set It and Forget It” from the Ronco Showtime Rotisserie infomercial with Ron Popeil. I would have thought that his motto was so well known that nobody would ever try to copy it.

I guess not. In fact, “Set It and Forget It” may become the most copied infomercial slogan ever. I wrote earlier how the infomercial for Patch Perfect grass seed ripped off the phrase with its “Spread It and Forget It.”

At least Patch Perfect is a very different product from the Showtime Rotisserie. The Flavor Wave Oven Deluxe, on the other hand, is a counter-top cooker like the Ronco Showtime Rotisserie, and now they’ve ripped off Ron Popeil’s famous phrase as well. On the infomercial for the Flavor Wave Oven Deluxe, veteran host Jan Muller tells people to “Set It & Walk Away.”

That, however, is not the only catch phrase promoted by the Flavor Wave Oven Deluxe infomercial. In addition to the stolen motto, they promote a motto which is downright strange: “I See the Light.” I suppose “I See the Light” obliquely refers both to the halogen light that produces the infrared cooking waves as well to some amazing moment of realization that the FlavorWave Oven Deluxe is superior to other cooking methods. However, when people hear the phrase “I See the Light” uttered endlessly on this infomercial I doubt many have a clue what it is supposed to mean.

Here are some clips of both phrases being uttered on the FlavorWave Oven Deluxe Infomercial:

Is that creepy or what?

“I See the Light” is surely one of the lamest, oddest, and most convoluted infomercial taglines of all time. It’s more reminiscent of the mantra of a religious cult than something designed to sell a kitchen appliance.

I suspect that some advertising wizard came up with the idiotic slogan “I see the light,” thinking it was oh so witty and clever. Then someone else realized how confusing and pointless it was and decided to steal a page from Ron “King of Infomercials” Popeil by using “Set It & Walk Away” as well.

So many of you enjoyed my last post with the video from the Jeff Paul Shortcuts to Internet Millions infomercial, that I’ve decided to give you some more.

I guess a lot of guys have nothing better to do in the middle of the night than stare at boobs on an infomercial and then go on the Internet and try to see them again. And who am I to stand in your way! So here are pictures of Kelly Britz and Tina Milano for you to drool over. But before you post any questions, let me inform you 1) No I cannot make the images larger or with higher resolution 2) I do not have any nude photos of either Tina Milano or Kelly Britz.

Here is that blond bombshell Kelly Britz:

And here is her brunette compatriot Tina Milano. I think in the first image Tina is trying to make her eyes bigger than her boobs. (She doesn’t succeed.)

And here are the two models togther:

But wait, there’s more! As a free bonus to you here is yet another video clip from the Jeff Paul Shortcuts to Internet Millons infomercial. Here Kelly Britz and Tina Milano discuss how their “girlfriends” have websites:

Gentlemen, you are free to imagine that these “girlfriends” are just as hot and Kelly and Tina. And I think we all know just what kinds of websites these girlfriends have as well.

Here is an interesting way to promote a course in making money on the Internet. Check out hosts Kelly Britz and Tina Milano having a discussion about making money online:

So what was your impression of the “Shortcuts to Internet Millions” system? I think this infomercial will join the Tony Little Gazelle ad as the infomercial that most seems like a porn video even though the product has nothing to do with sex: The prominent bare cleavage, the sleazy synthesizer background music, the bad acting, the stilted dialog, two female “friends” sharing physical contact (however brief). Kelly Britz and Tina Milano look like the kind of women who’d appear in a porn video, and Jeff Paul looks like the kind of man who’d sit on his couch watching a porn video.

A clip of Kelly Britz and Tina Milano from the Jeff Paul infomercial was recently featured on The Soup—to which Joel McHale’s comment was: “Thank you, tits.”

The particular airing of the infomercial that I recorded was broadcast immediately after the ExtenZe infomercial and right before a commercial for MaxoDerm male enhancement, which seems about right.

But wait, there’s more for you horndogs: It turns out that before turning infomercial host Kelly Britz (who also goes by Kelley Britz) was a player in something called the Lingerie Football League (see pictures of Kelly Britz suited up) and according to this website she was a teammate of ExtenZe infomercial hostesss Bridgetta Tomarchio! Apparently they were both on the 2005 roster of the Chicago Bliss. So I guess we have a clear career path from player in the Lingerie Football League to host for a sleazy late night infomercial—which seems to me more like a lateral than a forward pass.

Once again the Electronic Retailing Association (ERA) has presented its ERA Awards for the “best” infomercials of the year. (Check out my post on the 2006 ERA Awards.) So put on your tuxedo and get ready for 2007’s nominees.

In the most important category of Best Long Form Infomercial, the winner is…the boring-as-hell Sheer Cover infomercial from Guthy-Renker.

In the very popular category of Best Celebrity presenter, the nominees are…

Jack LaLanne for Power Juicer Pro

Victoria Principal for Principal Secret

Leeza Gibbons for Sheer Cover

And the winner is…Leeza Gibbons for the boring-as-hell Sheer Cover infomercial. I would have thought that Jack LaLanne’s vocal talents alone would have gotten him the prize.

Last year the award for Best Short Form infomercial went to Proactiv Solution, but this year the ERA Awards decided to go in a bold new direction by presenting the award to…Proactiv Solution.

Last year I noted that of the five nominations for Best Male Presenter two went to David Oreck and two went to Jake “Body by Jake” Steinfeld. This year, however, the category has three nominations: Two of which went to David Oreck and one of which went to Jack Steinfeld. So it is totally different. David Oreck won the award by the way, probably because Jake Steinfeld won it last year, so they wanted a little variety.

Overall, the two themes that emerged from the 2007 ERA Awards were “Boring as Hell” and “Same Old Crap as Last Year.”

If you take a look at the list of winners and nominees, you will see that there are many different awards, most likely so that almost everyone can end up with a prize and not too many people will leave with their feelings hurt. Even the commercial for Beavis and Butthead’s “Living Without Fear” won an award for “Best Short Form Intellectual Property”—perhaps the only time the word “Intellectual” has ever been associated with Beavis and Butthead.

Once again I personally boycotted this year’s ERA Awards ceremony—this time in protest that in the “Best Long Form Show Produced in Latin America” category the infomercials for Karakol Kream and Knutric were not even nominated! It’s an outrage, an outrage I tell you!