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Zorbeez is a cloth which is claimed by manufacturer Vertical Branding to be capable of absorbing over 20 fluid oz. of liquid.^[1][2] However, it has often been tested with mixed results.^[3][4] In March 2009, Popular Mechanics tested Zorbeez against competitor ShamWow, and Zorbeez was found to be inferior.^[5] Mainly marketed on television, Zorbeez was represented by TV personality Billy Mays.^[6] WFLX's Deal or Dud segment tested the Zorbeez, and they called it a "Deal".^[7]

References[link]

1. ^ "The Zorbeez: Does It Work?". KCDB NewsChannel 11. WorldNow (Lubbock, Texas). 16 January 2008. http://www.kcbd.com/Global/story.asp?S=7691314. Retrieved 19 March 2009. 
2. ^ "Vertical Branding, Inc. Debuts ZorbEEZ On Home Shopping Network With Strong Sales Results". GlobeNewswire (Los Angeles). 15 June 2007. http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/news.html?d=121440. 
3. ^ "How absorbent does Zorbeez turn out to be?". Wate.com. 2008-03-17. http://www.wate.com/Global/story.asp?S=8028665. Retrieved 2012-03-04. 
4. ^ "Zorbeez: Does it Work? - KFVS12 News & Weather Cape Girardeau, Carbondale, Poplar Bluff". Kfvs12.com. 2007-11-07. http://www.kfvs12.com/Global/story.asp?S=7324016. Retrieved 2012-03-04. 
5. ^ "Shamwow vs. Zorbeez: Which works Better? As Seen On TV Lab Test". Popular Mechanics. http://www.popularmechanics.com/blogs/home_journal_news/4309587.html. Retrieved 2012-03-04. 
6. ^ "Vertical Branding Announces Successful ZorbEEZ Product Launch". Newsblaze.com. 2007-03-20. http://newsblaze.com/story/2007032011225900002.pz/topstory.html. Retrieved 2012-03-04. 
7. ^ "Deal or Dud: Zorbeez Towels - Fox29 WFLX TV, West Palm Beach, Florida". Wflx.com. http://www.wflx.com/Global/story.asp?s=7821362. Retrieved 2012-03-04. 

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Billy Mays
Mays at Flatiron District in June 2009, a few weeks before his death
Born	William Darrell Mays, Jr. (1958-07-20)July 20, 1958[1] McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, United States
Died	June 28, 2009(2009-06-28) (aged 50) Tampa, Florida, United States
Other names	Billy Mays, King of the Pitch
Occupation	Television direct-response advertisement salesman
Years active	1993–2009
Home town	McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania
Spouse	Dolores "Dee Dee" Mays[2] Deborah Mays[2]
Children	Billy Mays III Elizabeth Mays
Parents	Billy Mays, Sr. Joyce Palm

William Darrell "Billy" Mays, Jr. (July 20, 1958 – June 28, 2009)^[3] was an American television direct-response advertisement salesperson most notable for promoting OxiClean, Orange Glo, and other cleaning, home-based, and maintenance products on the Home Shopping Network, and through his company, Mays Promotions, Inc. He and his business partner, Anthony Sullivan, were also featured on PitchMen, a TV series that documented their work. His distinctive beard and impassioned sales pitches made him a recognized television presence in the United States and Canada.^[4][5] Mays was found unresponsive by his wife in his Tampa, Florida, home on the morning of June 28, 2009.^[6] He was pronounced dead at 7:45 am, appearing to have died sometime overnight.^[3][7]

Early life[link]

Mays was born in McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, attended Sto-Rox High School, and was raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.^[1][8] He later attended West Virginia University, where he was a walk-on linebacker on its football team during his two years there.^[9] After dropping out, he worked for his father's hazardous waste company before moving to Atlantic City, New Jersey in 1983.^[1]

Career[link]

On the Atlantic City boardwalk Mays sold the Washmatik portable washing device to passersby,^[10] along with other "As Seen on TV" products.^[1] In Atlantic City, he was taught how to sell by the older salesmen, saying "I was taught to pitch by a lot of old pitchmen. That's the kind of style I have."^[1] Mays then traveled to home shows, auto shows, and state fairs across the United States for a period of twelve years, selling various maintenance products and tools, including cleaning products and food choppers.^[10]

At a Pittsburgh home show in 1993, Mays struck up a friendship with rival salesman Max Appel, founder of Orange Glo International, a Denver-based manufacturer of cleaning products. He was then hired by the company to promote their line of cleaners, OxiClean, Orange Clean, Orange Glo, and Kaboom, on the Home Shopping Network in St. Petersburg, Florida.^[11] Customer response to Mays's sales pitches was enthusiastic, with a sharp increase in sales after his first day on the network, although some reviews were poor. He was very well known for shouting in an abrasive manner during infomercials. For example, Washington Post staff writer Frank Ahrens called him and other similar television salesmen "a full-volume pitchman, amped up like a candidate for a tranquilizer-gun takedown".^[12]

Mays was the CEO and founder of Mays Promotions, Inc., based at his home in Odessa, Florida.^[4] His services as a pitchman became highly sought-after, and he appeared in commercials for many diverse "as seen on TV" products such as Mighty Putty. Mays claimed to be an avid user of the products he promoted.^[13] In December 2008, Mays began appearing in ads for ESPN's online service, ESPN360.^[14] These ads were a slight departure for Mays as they were designed to be parodies of his and other infomercial cliches with Mays appearing to be doing a parody of himself. He also made a live appearance during the 2008 Champs Sports Bowl promoting ESPN's and ABC's January 1, 2009, bowl games.

On April 15, 2009, the Discovery Channel began airing PitchMen, a documentary series that featured Mays and Anthony Sullivan in their jobs in direct-response marketing.^[15] After Mays's death, Discovery Channel aired a special Billy Mays tribute episode of PitchMen called "Pitchman: A Tribute to Billy Mays".

On March 27, 2009, Mays appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. He and Sullivan also appeared on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien on June 23, 2009.^[16]

Prior to his death, Mays had signed a deal with Taco Bell to film infomercial-style commercials for the chain. Shooting was scheduled to begin in August 2009.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life[link]

Mays's first marriage to Dolores "Dee Dee" Mays ended in divorce.^[17] He had a son with Dolores named Billy Mays III, who was 22 years old at the time of Mays's death and who worked as a production assistant alongside his father on the PitchMen television show.^[18] Mays had a daughter, Elizabeth, with his second wife, Deborah Mays. His daughter was three years old at the time of his death.^[17][19] Mays's mother is Joyce Palm,^[18] and his father is Billy Mays, Sr.; they both outlived him.

In an interview during the 2008 Presidential Campaign, Mays revealed himself to be a Republican.^[20]

Death[link]

Wikinews has related news: American pitchman Billy Mays dies at age 50

Mays was found unresponsive by his wife in his Tampa, Florida, home on the morning of June 28, 2009.^[6] He was pronounced dead at 7:45 am, appearing to have died sometime overnight.^[3][7] The Associated Press reported that there were no indications that the house had been broken into, and that police did not suspect foul play.^[7] Initially, there was wrong speculation that he had a head injury after he was struck on the head by luggage after an airline landing mishap where tires blew out.^[21]

After an initial autopsy on Mays's body on June 29, Dr. Vernard Adams, the Hillsborough County, Florida medical examiner, stated that Mays suffered from hypertensive heart disease and that heart disease was the likely cause of his death. According to a toxicology report released August 7, 2009, heart disease was the "primary cause of death" and cocaine was listed as a "contributory cause of death."^[22][23] In response to the release of the toxicology report, the Mays family issued a press release stating, "We are extremely disappointed by the press release released by the Hillsborough County medical examiner's office. We believe it contains speculative conclusions that are frankly unnecessary and tend to obscure the conclusion that Billy suffered from chronic, untreated hypertension..." and said in the release that they were considering "an independent evaluation of the autopsy results".^[24]

The medical examiner "concluded that cocaine use caused or contributed to the development of his heart disease, and thereby contributed to his death," the office said in a press release. The office said Mays last used cocaine in the few days before his death but was not under the influence of the drug when he died. Hillsborough County spokeswoman Lori Hudson said nothing in the toxicology report indicated the frequency of Mays's cocaine use. Cocaine can raise the arterial blood pressure, directly cause thickening of the left wall of the ventricle and accelerate the formation of atherosclerosis in the coronary arteries, the release said. However, in October 2009, the results of a second medical examination, commissioned by Mays' family, concluded that "cocaine was not a significant contributing factor" to his death.^[25]

Longtime friend and colleague A.J. Khubani, founder and CEO of the "As Seen on TV" product company Telebrands, said Mays never exhibited any signs of drug use and was always prepared for his many commercial shoots. "I'm just shocked," Khubani said. "He was the model of a responsible citizen."

According to subsequent news reports^[26] the toxicology tests also showed levels of painkillers hydrocodone, oxycodone and tramadol, as well as anti-anxiety drugs alprazolam and diazepam. Mays had suffered hip problems and was scheduled for hip replacement surgery the day after he was found dead.

Mays's funeral was held on July 3, 2009 in his hometown of McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania. The pallbearers for the funeral wore blue shirts and khaki pants at the funeral, much like Mays wore when he advertised his products.^[27]

Fictional representation[link]

In the South Park episode "Dead Celebrities", Mays's ghost appears repeatedly to Ike Broflovski, trying to sell him products from the afterlife with his catchphrase "Hi, Billy Mays here with the...". Mays's son, Billy Mays III, a self-proclaimed South Park fan, said he loved "Dead Celebrities", and found its portrayal of his father to be both tasteful and respectful.^[28]

Notable products pitched[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Biography portal

• Billy Mays at the Internet Movie Database
• Official Twitter page
• Billy Mays at Find a Grave

Vince Offer
Offer in 2009
Born	Offer Shlomi[1][2] (1964-04-25) April 25, 1964 (age 48) Haifa, Israel
Citizenship	American, Israeli
Known for	Infomercial Acting

Offer "Vince" Shlomi (born April 25, 1964), also known as Vince Offer, the "ShamWow!" Guy, or Headset Vince, is an infomercial pitchman, writer, director, and comedian.^[1][2][3] Offer's first major work was the 1999 comedy film The Underground Comedy Movie. In the late 2000s, Offer began appearing on television commercials for the products "ShamWow!", a super-absorbent towel, the "Slap Chop", a kitchen utensil, and a lint roller called the "Shticky".

Career[link]

Film[link]

In 1999, Vince Offer wrote, directed and appeared in The Underground Comedy Movie, which was met with less-than-favorable reviews. DVDs of the film were marketed via television infomercial. The film also led to several lawsuits. Although the film was released and screened in 1999, Offer was bankrupt by 2002 and home video distribution plans were shelved. Offer, who had previously been a successful vegetable chopper salesman and businessman, resumed selling vegetable choppers at swap meets to support himself and raise money to complete his film project. Within a few months, he had earned enough to resume production, and the movie was finally completed, released, and marketed entirely on late-night infomercials that Offer paid for with his earnings from the swap meet vegetable chopper sales. In 2011, he appeared as himself in the Adam Sandler film Jack and Jill where the title character Jill referred to him as "the ShamWow guy". He is currently playing as Peeping Tom in Square Entertainment's upcoming 2012 film InAPPropriate Comedy.^[4]

Infomercial marketing[link]

Offer, who funded The Underground Comedy Movie with his own money, had trouble selling it. Inspired by the success of Girls Gone Wild marketing, he decided to put the trailer on an infomercial, and sold 50,000 copies via direct order.^[5] In 2010, he advertised Eminem's Recovery album.^[6]

ShamWow![link]

Vince Offer in January 2009.

The success of The Underground Comedy Movie infomercial suggested to Offer that he should sell something more mainstream. Drawing upon his experience working in flea markets, he decided in 2006 to market a cleaning product that he saw there, an absorbent towel that he called the "ShamWow!".^[5][7] The title of the product derives from the French pronunciation of the chamois.

The advertisement, filmed in the summer of 2007 with a budget of $20,000, became a popular hit.^[5] Slate.com's Seth Stevenson praised Offer for his "impressive and subtle mastery of the pitchman's art" (with lines such as "you know the Germans always make good stuff"), and wondered if Offer's "abrasive manner might also mark a unique, new strategy in the annals of pitchdom." Stevenson compared Offer to earlier, "more upbeat" television pitchmen like the late Billy Mays and the Home Shopping Network hosts and concluded that Offer's "smooth-talking condescension" was more suited to the present "zeitgeist" than the "earnest fervor" of spokesmen like Mays and Ron Popeil.^[7]

Consumer Reports reported that the infomercial for "ShamWow!" initially featured Offer claiming that the product held "20 times its weight in liquid". Later, the infomercial was changed to Offer claiming the "ShamWow!" held "12 times its weight in liquid", then again to "10 times". Consumer Reports did its own test on the product and found that it does indeed hold 10 times its weight in liquid but no more.^[8]

Offer says that he has sold millions of the towels.^[5] Notwithstanding his infomercial success, Offer says that "this is not my career" and that he considers himself to be in the film business.^[5]

Pitchman Billy Mays had been promoting a similar product called Zorbeez two years prior to Vinces Offer's "ShamWow!" product. Mays noted that the "ShamWow!" commercials use many of the same product demonstrations as the earlier-produced Zorbeez commercial. In February 2009 while on the Adam Carolla radio show, Billy Mays publicly challenged Offer to a "pitch off" between their respective absorbent towel products.^[9]

Popular Mechanics tested the absorbency of the two towel products and declared "ShamWow!" was the more effective of the two, but noted "If you have reusable cloth rags (and a roll of paper towels for backup), then neither product is necessary."^[10]

This result had been hotly contested by Billy Mays before his death, and was a major part of the season finale of his Discovery Channel show PitchMen.

During the episode, it was suggested that the Popular Mechanics tester did not use the Zorbeez correctly.^[11]

Fox's "Deal or Dud" segment tested the ShamWow and struggled to get the product working as advertised, calling it a "dud."

Following the popularity of the commercial, TMZ in 2009 posted a remix of the commercial on their site.^[12]

Slap Chop[link]

Vince pitching the Slap Chop in August 2008.

In December 2008, Offer, who had previously sold kitchen utensils at swap meets,^[7] appeared in another kitchen-gadget infomercial, advertising the Slap Chop and the Graty. The Slap Chop is a hand-held chopping device with internal blades; to operate it, the user places it over a food item and slaps down the button on the top. The Graty is a cheese grater operated by placing the cheese inside and then turning the outside housing of the utensil which causes the cheese to be grated.^[13] Both of these devices are offered in several colors. Offer's aggressiveness and use of double entendres like "you're gonna love my nuts" in the English version and "mira mi huevo" and "excitante" in a version he made for Spanish speaking audiences have earned him notoriety,^[14] and, according to an Adweek blog, helped make Offer "the man who could beat Billy Mays at his own game."

Billy Mays had been promoting a similar product set which included the Quick Chop utensil and the Quick Grater utensil prior to Vince Offer's Slap Chop/Graty product set. Mays again noted that the Slap Chop commercials use many of the same demos as the earlier-produced Quick Chop commercial. Mays said in the same Adam Carolla radio show interview in February 2009 that Offer stole not only the Zorbeez product idea, but also the Quick Chop idea.^[9]

In April 2009, DJ Steve Porter posted an electro-themed "Slap Chop Rap" Auto Tune remix which grew a cult following during July 2009.^[15]

Schticky[link]

In 2012 Offer returned to television selling the "Schticky", a reusable lint roller that comes in three sizes: little Schticky, Schticky, and big Schticky. As in the Slap Chop advertisement, there are several instances where innuendo comes into play. For example, Offer uses the term "Schticky" as a certain euphemism for male anatomy and purposely uses the term "pussy" to describe a shedding cat (which can be used to refer to cats but is often used to refer to the vagina).

The commercial makes many references to his other two commercials for the ShamWow and the Slap Chop, with Vince saying many of his catchphrases. He also pokes fun at his 2009 arrest by posing for a fake mugshot.^[16][17][18]

Arrest[link]

On February 7, 2009, Offer was arrested in Miami Beach, Florida on a charge of felony battery after an altercation with a 26-year-old prostitute. Offer contended that he struck the prostitute when she "bit his tongue and would not let go." Prosecutors later declined to file formal charges against either individual.^[2][19][20]

Fictional Representation[link]

In an Epic Rap Battle Of History episode, he is shown in response to BIlly May's heart attack. He is holding what look likes to be a Sham Wow in his hand. He also wears a little mic hung onto his ear. He also says "You're gonna love my nuts" as from the Slap Chop infomercial.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Vince Shlomi

• Vince Offer at the Internet Movie Database
• Official ShamWow! website
• Official Slap Chop website
• Official Schticky website