I like the folks on television who sell us products that will make our lives better. My current favorites are the ShamWow guy, Billy Mays: the Oxy Clean spokesman and the Progressive Insurance girl.
I think I am in love with Flo the Progressive Insurance girl. That voice, those eyes, those lips. She is always enthusiastic, perky and excited even though she is working as a cashier in some sort of cyberspace insurance store.
I had to know more about her, so I searched the Web and found a story written by Chris Garcia of the American Statesman. Her real name is Stephanie Courtney and she is a member of the Los Angeles improv troupe, the Groundlings.
Courtney has also done stand-up comedy. She has a funny video on YouTube about what winds up on the shelves of 99-cent stores. She got the role of Flo following an audition.
Courtney spends two hours in make up to transform her into the Progressive Insurance character. She was in the movies “The Heartbreak Kid,” “Blades of Glory,” “Melvin Goes to Dinner,” and has a recurring role as the switchboard operator on the show “Mad Men.”
I am not the only guy who is enamored with “Flo.” In a number of blogs, men say she is hot but can’t quite pin down why they find her so attractive. In a way, she is a throwback to the 1960’s, sort of like the cute waitress that worked in a diner that you were too young to date. We do know she likes cashmere socks from the Christmas Progressive commercial.
Courtney signed a contract for 12 commercials, so there are more on the way. I can’t wait.
And then we meet the guy on the ShamWow commercial. He is the one demonstrating the amazing absorbency of the chamois-like towels, telling us that “the Germans always make good stuff,” and asking “are you following me camera guy” and warning us to order within in the next 20 minutes, “because we can’t do this all day.”
He has the delivery of a carnival barker and he stares at us more out of one eye than the other. The ShamWow guy’s name is Vince Offer and he is also a filmmaker.
His claim to fame is a rather bawdy film called the “Underground Comedy Movie.” Offer worked in flea markets where he no doubt picked up his style, which is surprisingly effective and described as abrasive.
It is impossible to turn the channel when he is demonstrating ShamWow. Are you as amazed as I am how it picks up that mixture of wine, cola and coffee from that piece of carpet? Offer claims he has sold millions of ShamWows. He also sells the Slap Chop kitchen utensil in another commercial.
“You’re going to be in a good mood all day because you’ll be slapping your troubles away,” said Offer in that commercial.
“Stop having boring tuna, stop having a boring life,” he continues as he slap chops a can of tuna.
Offer takes a competing chopper and throws it over his shoulder calling it worthless. He could certainly get a job on the Wildwood Boardwalk running a game.
Then there is Billy Mays. You know him as the OxiClean guy. He’s the one with the black, Magic Marker color beard and hair and the convincing but somewhat high voice.
One thing May has going for him is the trust factor. OxiClean works so we assume anything else he is pitching will work as well. He started as pitchman on the Atlantic City Boardwalk selling some sort of tabletop washing machine.
Mays traveled the country selling various items at state fairs, home and auto shows. He and I have something in common, we both worked for the Home Shopping Network.
That shopping channel looks pretty sophisticated these days, but when I worked there as a television director in the 1980s it was pretty cheesy with hosts honking bicycle horns and playing all sorts of obvious price games.
Mays first started as a pitchman for a product called Orange Glo. He now is president of his own production company and highly sought after for Direct Response (DR) television commercials.
DR commercials are the ones that feature a phone number at the end to order the product. According to the February 2009 issue of Response Magazine, the trade publication for DR advertising, the top 10 DR spots in January were: The Snuggie, bareminerals, Cash4Gold, Video Professor, Pet Meds, Loud’ n Clear, Magicjack, Silver Sonic XL, Twin Draft Guard and Direct Buy furnishing center.
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