The Age of Breasts: Gratuitous Cleavage on the Jeff Paul, Erica Inc, and Video Professor Infomercials

One infomercial trend you might want to keep an eye out for: Gratuitous cleavage.

Of course, T & A in infomercials is nothing new. However, in the previous displays of flesh, there was at least some plausible link between the body parts and the sales pitch. One would expect that infomercials selling sex products, such as Girls Gone Wild or ExtenZe, would show lots of female flesh. Infomercials peddling diet or exercise products, such as the Tony Little Gazelle, also have a motive to show off the fit bodies supposedly created by their products. Even the blatant use of bikini babes in the Tom Vu infomercials served to reinforce the overall message: Like the mansion and fancy cars, those hot babe were supposed to be one of the prizes your wealth could buy you—if you’d attend Vu’s real estate seminar.

The recent spate of décolletage, however, is completely gratuitous. There seems to be no connection between the breasts and the products:

• The Jeff Paul Shortcuts to Internet Millions infomercial sells a course teaching people how to make money on the Web.
• The Erica Inc. infomercial sells a home business opportunity.
• The Video Professor infomercial (with host Rebecca Grant) sells computer training CDs.

Have yourself an eyeful:

Perhaps the producers are just trying to get horny channel surfers to stop and stare and the bosoms and then hope they’ll hang around long enough to be convinced by the sales pitch.

One strange thing on the Erica Inc infomercial is that after they show us cleavage:

They then tease the viewers by covering most of it up with graphics:

And then they cover it up altogether:

It’s like they’re saying, “Enough gawking you horny losers! Pick up the phone and order our product!”