Flavor Wave Oven Infomercial Rips-Off Ron Popeil
November 25th, 2007 Paul Lucas
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.
I knew that the phrase, “See the light” was a play on words about both the halogen light in the oven and the realization that there are better cooking methods than the conventional oven… I have one, and whatever you can say against the infomercial, it is a great oven…
Set it and walk away makes more sense anyway, since if you really set it and then forget it, you would forget about it, and may not remember to come back to eat the food until you get really hungry :)
Comment by Bruce — January 17th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
Why are you making a big deal about ron popeil. Who cares if his speech was stolen. I have one of these ovens and it works nicely. I use it all the time. As far as ron popeil slogan being stolen that is no concern of mine. I would be more interested in the thing working. It does work.
Comment by Jamal — March 15th, 2008 at 8:51 am
I watched this infomercial last night and I am convinced the reason they keep saying “I See The Light” is because this is the Flavor Wave DELUXE. As they point out themselves, the original Flavor Wave did not have the halogen light. The new Deluxe model does. They make a point to keep referencing the light because that is the big selling point between the old and new model and in order to get all those people who a year ago bought the old one to buy the new one, they have to constantly point out what makes it special.
Comment by Ben — March 28th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Just want to point out your spell-checker popped in “released” instead of “realized” in the last sentance there.
Comment by diemwing — August 20th, 2008 at 1:47 am
Thanks for pointing that out. I’ve made the correction.
Comment by Paul Lucas — August 20th, 2008 at 9:17 am