In this week’s “Designing Women” cold open, we found Charlene toasting up a sandwich atrocity - I mean, masterpiece - in her “As Seen on TV” diamond in the rough: a hot sandwich toasting machine. I don’t know about you, but that very nearly inspired us to dust off the ole George Foreman and toast up a delectable grilled sandwich creation of my own. I mean, we didn’t, of course, but we sure did think about it!
The other thing we thought about was the magical moment infomercials and the “As Seen on TV” world had back in the 90s/early 2000s and wondered, as always, “What was the deal with that?” And that’s where we find ourselves today - trying to answer the question of “As Seen on TV” products, what was the deal with that?”
So, act now to secure this “Extra Sugar” episode - which we’re calling: “This Extra Sugar Marvel Could Be All Yours For Four Easy Payments of $19.99”.
J/K. You know we’ll be back next week whether you pay us or not.
As an added bonus, here’s the list of sources we used to pull this segment together - all yours, just for listening in today:
Wikipedia’s explainers on “As seen on TV” products and infomercials
The historical high points of infomercials are spelled out in these articles from Infomercial.com (yep, it’s a thing) and AsSeenonTV.com
The New York Times offers a few theories as to why America’s were so fascinated by infomercials (based on this 1992 piece)
GoBankingRates.com’s compilation of the most-profitable “As Seen on TV” products of all time and BuzzFeed’s list of modern products you may be interested in
Come on y’all, let’s get into it!
Or listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Amazon Music.
Transcript
Nikki: Hi, Salina.
Salina: Hey, Nikki.
Nikki: And hi, everyone else.
Nikki: Welcome to this week's edition of Extra Sugar.
Nikki: So in this week's episode of designing Women in the Cold Open, we found Charlene toasting up a sandwich atrocity.
Nikki: Nope.
Nikki: Masterpiece in her as seen on tv, diamond in the rough.
Nikki: A hot sandwich toasting machine.
Nikki: I don't know about you, but it very nearly inspired me to pull out the George foreman and toast up a delectable grilled sandwich creation of my own.
Nikki: Of course, I didn't, because I actually retired my George Foreman just last year.
Nikki: But I sure thought about it.
Nikki: The other thing I thought about was the magical moment infomercials and the as seen on tv world had back in the early two thousand s.
Nikki: And I wondered, as always, what was the deal with that?
Nikki: And that's where we find ourselves today.
Nikki: We're going to try to answer the question of as seen on tv products.
Nikki: What was the deal with that?
Nikki: So act now, Salina, to secure this extra sugar episode, which I'm calling this extra sugar marvel.
Nikki: Could be all yours for four easy payments of 1999.
Nikki: Sham.
Salina: Wow.
Nikki: And as everyone knows by now, you'll actually get this episode for free, whether you pay us or not.
Nikki: So let's jump into it by talking about infomercials and as seen on tv products.
Nikki: So we have several international listeners, and I don't know whether this resonates with them as a cultural phenomenon.
Nikki: If it does, let us know.
Nikki: But if it doesn't, I wanted to just set the stage a little bit.
Nikki: So at its core, as seen on tv is just a general phrase for products that are advertised on tv and.
Salina: Then made, I was going to say.
Nikki: Seen on tv and then made available through order.
Nikki: Usually it's like through a toll free number or today a website.
Nikki: So the ads can be really brief, like a normal 32nd commercial.
Nikki: But the OG as seen on tv ads were really long.
Nikki: Much longer.
Nikki: Infomercials is what they were called, basically an ad disguised as a tv show, which is what Julia taught Charlene in designing women this week.
Salina: But it wasn't really disguised that so.
Nikki: Well, it was in the very early days of advertising, and I think I ended up pulling this out.
Nikki: But the earliest infomercials were actually just, like, really firm product placements in things like soap operas and tv shows.
Nikki: And the entire episode would be to sell this product.
Nikki: And you didn't realize it until you got all the way to the end.
Salina: Oh, we're doing that again, too.
Nikki: Yeah.
Nikki: So it's a thing.
Salina: My favorite was Riverdale, and this was just a few years ago.
Salina: And she was like, this is why my Lencomb mascara will help me solve the crime, or something like that.
Salina: And I was like, is it?
Salina: Did that really just happen?
Nikki: Well, I just recently rewatched an episode of Arrested Development where it's, like, clearly sponsored in some way, but the show is self aware.
Nikki: It's poking fun at itself.
Nikki: But I think it was like Burger King, and there was a whole off screen story, like they were, I don't know, the threat of cancellation or something because they weren't making enough money, so they had to secure an ad placement.
Nikki: So they ended up building this whole storyline to promote Burger King.
Nikki: And it was, again, self aware.
Nikki: And it was really funny back in the old days.
Nikki: It wasn't like that.
Nikki: It wasn't funny.
Nikki: It was just like the Riverdale example built into the show.
Nikki: Anyway, I digress.
Nikki: The products.
Salina: You digress?
Nikki: I don't know what happened.
Salina: Who am I?
Nikki: Where are we?
Nikki: My eye itches.
Nikki: The products themselves are really noticeable thanks to the as seen on tv logo, which is red tv shaped and says, as seen on tv.
Nikki: Interestingly, I thought this was fascinating.
Nikki: The red logo and the phrase are both in the public domain, which means it can be used on packaging or in business with no fee and without any trademark infringement.
Nikki: It also means that companies who produce generic versions of a** seed on tv products can alter the logo to say things like, kind of like what you saw that one time on tv, or, hey, do you recognize this?
Nikki: Probably.
Nikki: And it might even work.
Nikki: Just anything like that.
Nikki: And they can use that same logo.
Salina: Wonderful.
Nikki: The idea of a generic as seen on tv product is.
Nikki: What's the word for that?
Salina: It's like, just so meta.
Nikki: Yeah.
Salina: Boggles the mind.
Salina: Why make this a little more affordable?
Nikki: Like I said, these products have historically been marketed on tv via infomercials, which are basically paid programming that can sometimes disguise itself as a tv show.
Nikki: Though, to your point, isn't always that great of a disguise.
Nikki: The infomercial industry is worth over $200 billion today.
Nikki: Do you have any infomercial or as seen on tv items that really just are fundamental to either your life in the past or your life today?
Nikki: Like the George Foreman Grill.
Nikki: For me, like an indoor grill, this was life altering.
Nikki: My parents, incidentally, when that first came out, they went on a diet and all they could eat was grilled chicken.
Nikki: And the George Foreman Grill was, like, life changing.
Nikki: We would George Foreman chicken, like, all the time for dinner.
Salina: It was so funny because I think it's like, when I think of George Foreman.
Salina: That was so in the culture for so long that I kind of forgot that that was also an, oh, we'll.
Nikki: Talk about it a little later.
Nikki: Yeah.
Salina: I'm thinking as you go through, it might spark things for me.
Salina: It was also making me think about when we recently talked about exercise equipment.
Salina: And so definitely it puts me in the mind of, like, Suzanne Summers.
Salina: And I do think any and all of that does feel part and parcel to my childhood because it's what interrupted my cartoon time.
Nikki: Sure.
Salina: Right.
Salina: And then today, I don't know if anything feels that way just because would you say they're $200 billion, so they're making some money, but I guess they're finding me a different way.
Salina: I don't know.
Nikki: Yeah.
Salina: The other thing that I'll mention is that I think just maybe in the last decade, as seen on tv, stores went away because they were definitely in sugarloaf mills.
Salina: That's always so weird.
Salina: Anyway.
Nikki: Yeah.
Salina: The weirdest little mall weird was, what.
Nikki: Do you call that compilation of stores?
Salina: So strange.
Nikki: Crocs outlet.
Nikki: There was an outlet for crocs.
Nikki: What?
Nikki: The other product that when I immediately thought about an infomercial, extra sugar, the other product that immediately came to mind for me was a rotisserie chicken maker.
Nikki: We used to watch this infomercial at my grandmother's house during the summer.
Nikki: And one summer in particular, I remember we watched the commercial and it just made the most juicy, delicious looking chicken.
Nikki: We left, and by the time we came back for Christmas break, she had one.
Salina: Of course, my grandma also had a rotisserie chicken.
Nikki: Oh, man, that one sold me.
Nikki: I wonder if grandma's listening.
Nikki: Grandma, you still got that thing?
Nikki: I really want that chicken again.
Nikki: So infomercials really hit their stride in the late eighty s and ninety s, but their history dates back further than that, which I mentioned earlier.
Nikki: So, like, way back to the 40s.
Nikki: In fact, as long as tv has been a thing, people selling you things on tv has been a thing.
Nikki: According to an article I found on infomercial.com.
Nikki: This is also your weekly reminder.
Nikki: There is indeed a website for everything.
Nikki: The first infomercial is believed to have aired in 1949 on a local station in Ohio for the Vitamix Blender.
Nikki: The infomercial in question was a 30 minutes program showcasing the blender's features.
Nikki: Ultimately, it was designed to educate and inform viewers about how the product worked and what it could do.
Nikki: In the following decades, brands like Boliva.
Nikki: And in the following decade, brands like Boliva and Chevrolet also toyed with hour long informational programs about their products.
Nikki: Could you imagine an hour long program about a watch?
Nikki: No, Casey.
Nikki: Casey's a watch lover.
Nikki: Could he imagine an hour long program about a watch?
Nikki: He's also a car lover.
Nikki: What about a Chevy?
Nikki: I could see a Chevy for maybe an hour.
Nikki: They got a lot to show you.
Nikki: Show me some racetrack footage.
Nikki: I'd watch that, but I'll watch.
Nikki: Yeah, I don't know.
Nikki: In the, we saw less of the long form advertising and more of what they call direct response tv, or DRTv.
Nikki: That's more just like traditional tv ads, 20, 30 seconds.
Nikki: Then they gave you a phone number where you could buy the product yourself.
Nikki: In 1978, the Federal Trade Commission, or FTC, began regulating infomercials, requiring them to note somewhere in the program that they were selling a product.
Nikki: Something interesting to note here is that while this is pulled out as the first big regulation to affect infomercials, I think the reason infomercials took off in the next decade is because, actually, legislation around tv advertising significantly let up in the years that followed, 1978.
Nikki: So up to that point, there had been very strict tv ads dating ad regulations, dating all the way back to the, which influenced the way advertisers could approach tv programming.
Salina: We talked about that with cartoons.
Nikki: Yes.
Nikki: So the FCC limited exactly how much advertising could be broadcast on tv, down to the minute of the length of ads that could be featured in a given hour.
Nikki: Sponsors had to find less in your face ways of promoting their products than that hour long infomercial.
Nikki: So they definitely existed, like I said earlier, but they weren't as prolific as they would become.
Nikki: And they were also really limited into, some tv channels would do, like, midnight infomercials, so they didn't have to go off air.
Nikki: They could keep showing things and not run afoul of the law.
Salina: Okay.
Nikki: So the Reagan administration worked to lift advertising regulations, which changed tv significantly.
Nikki: The government promoted a different approach to regulation of business, sort of in general, opting for a.
Nikki: I'm terrible with economics, so I'm just going to read this literally.
Nikki: You look like you want to say it.
Nikki: Free market approach.
Nikki: Is that what you were going to say?
Salina: Close enough.
Salina: Okay.
Nikki: They had much less involvement in how businesses were run, and this bled over into tv.
Nikki: They didn't need to regulate as much.
Nikki: They wanted the government not involved.
Nikki: So as a result, we arrived at the heyday of infomercials, the 80s, aptly known as the decade of excess in the landed in the 30 minutes sweet spot.
Nikki: That's where we got gems like you mentioned earlier some of the fitness stuff like the Thigh Master, which you also mentioned in this season's episode 18, incidentally.
Nikki: No, that's not right.
Nikki: Episode eight, incidentally, there's probably a fair amount of overlap between today's segment and that fitness trend segment.
Nikki: So I could have said that earlier.
Nikki: People might not have listened.
Nikki: So here we are.
Salina: Got you.
Nikki: FTC doesn't regulate me.
Nikki: The decade also gave us the juice man, a juicing machine, and like, a lot of get rich schemes.
Nikki: Get rich quick schemes.
Nikki: So by the 90s, as seen on tv, products were mainstream.
Nikki: There were products like the George Foreman, which I mentioned, George Foreman Grill, Oxiclean, which I just really loved the commercials for.
Nikki: I'd love a really good before and after.
Nikki: Like, if you show me a really dirty thing, I just love it.
Nikki: Sure, the rise of cable tv and the use of satellite channels exposed the commercials to a much wider audience.
Nikki: But in the 90s, this particular type of ad got even more regulation.
Nikki: In fact, in 97, the FTC implemented the franchise rule, which required infomercials promoting business opportunities to disclose additional information to viewers.
Nikki: So, like I said, in the 80s, they had like a ton of get rich quick schemes and people did not get rich quick, and they lost a lot of money.
Nikki: So by 97, they were tightening down on that so that they were a little more straightforward about what they were selling people.
Nikki: That's good.
Nikki: Tellingly, the articles I used as source material for this part of the segment really dropped off after the 90s.
Nikki: They do mention more regulation of infomercials in the 2000s, issuing rules requiring infomercials to disclose all material facts about a product, including any limitations or conditions that apply to its use or performance.
Nikki: They also note that the rise of ecommerce substantially changed the way people purchase products, and then the rise of digital media changed the way people consume information.
Nikki: Both of which combines make the infomercial format a little bit obsolete.
Nikki: Though like I mentioned earlier, they definitely still make money.
Nikki: And they've even pivoted to leverage social media a bit more.
Nikki: So instead of giving you hour long commercials on tv, they give you influencers selling you products for 60 seconds or whatever.
Nikki: So I think all of this leads to the next question of, like, why, of course, they're selling fantastic products, so maybe that's explanation enough, but it does feel like there's something cerebral happening here.
Nikki: So there's really two ways you can look at this.
Nikki: We can look at the science and psychology behind advertising and the structure of the infomercial as an explanation for what made them so successful.
Nikki: Or you could just think about people and what makes people people.
Nikki: So let's talk first about the psychology and structure of the infomercial.
Nikki: I found an article on the national media connection website that talked about the six core strategies leveraged in an infomercial to make it an effective sales technique.
Nikki: Some of it was basic stuff that makes sense to me, like storytelling.
Nikki: They make really good use of that.
Nikki: 30 minutes to an hour to tell you a story about their product and help you visualize it in your life.
Nikki: Another basic was graphic imagery and sounds.
Nikki: Lots of high quality images.
Nikki: Maybe video of it in action.
Nikki: Again, all designed to make you see the benefits and maybe its value in your life.
Nikki: But two things that were a little more thinky to me were the principle of reciprocity and then creating urgency and scarcity.
Nikki: So the principle of reciprocity is just a social concept that you owe someone something in return for something they did for you.
Nikki: So an infomercial offers you some extended period of time of entertainment.
Nikki: So that might build enough goodwill in you that by the time you get to the end, you feel like you owe it to them to buy their product.
Nikki: Alternatively, maybe they offer you something like a free trial or some kind of bonus add on that might make you feel like you owe it to them to give them a chance.
Nikki: Then urgency and scarcity.
Nikki: I just said this like I am a limited edition kind of gal.
Nikki: It gets me every fudging time.
Nikki: If you tell me there's only four of these in the world, I will go to the ends of the earth to get it.
Nikki: It's just the way I am.
Nikki: We have a joke that if something like Kyle and I joke that if something is being discontinued or there's only a few left.
Nikki: I've never wanted anything more in my entire life.
Nikki: It doesn't even matter if I didn't know it existed five minutes ago.
Nikki: Once I know there's not much left, I have to have it.
Salina: If y'all could see the look in.
Nikki: Her eye, it's just got, like, crazy, right?
Salina: Stone cold serious.
Nikki: But that works for a lot of people, apparently.
Nikki: I am not alone.
Salina: Yeah, I think that makes more sense than the reciprocity.
Nikki: I'm not PBS, but I'm not NPR.
Salina: Or something where you're putting good into the world, not crap, right?
Nikki: You've really given me something amazing.
Nikki: It didn't work for me.
Nikki: I think there's some other people.
Nikki: Maybe, though, that it does.
Nikki: But again, creating a sense of limited edition or scarce, it triggers a psychological response that encourages people to act now.
Nikki: So outside of all that brain mumbo jumbo, is there something else going on?
Nikki: I found a New York Times article called remind me, why was it that we ever watched infomercials and this piece tried to explain just that.
Salina: Perfect.
Salina: And we'll link to it for you.
Nikki: We certainly will.
Nikki: It's just behind a paywall.
Nikki: Sorry about that.
Salina: Oh, no.
Nikki: I went through the library to access it.
Nikki: You can do that, too, for context.
Nikki: It was written in 2018, but it sort of used a 1992 article called the Stepford Channel as its inspiration.
Nikki: That original article's lead sentence was, this is some kind of weird nightmare.
Nikki: Watching commercials that are half an hour long, epic pitches for makeup, shampoo, hair conditioners, juicers, steamers, fitness machines, rhinestone setters and stain removers.
Nikki: Or for Jessica Hahn's 900 number love phone.
Nikki: Do you remember Jessica Hahn?
Nikki: I think we talked about her in the.
Nikki: Oh, gosh, the preacher.
Nikki: Hail me.
Nikki: Southern Baptist pastor.
Nikki: Yeah, yeah, we had him, right?
Salina: The one that gets referenced all the time.
Salina: That'd be good.
Salina: So I wanted to say Jimmy Swaggart.
Salina: It's not him, it's the other.
Nikki: You know, we sometimes do that thing where we're like, why was designing women covering this thing right now?
Nikki: To put a finer point on it, it's because the New York Times was, this article was from the early 1992 talking about infomercials.
Nikki: So I'm sure that had something to do with it.
Nikki: But they had, to, that point, infiltrated society so much, we were at a point where they could be a funny plot detail on a mainstream sitcom.
Nikki: Baker, Tammy Faye Baker.
Nikki: Jim Baker.
Nikki: Thank you.
Nikki: Thank you.
Nikki: That's him.
Nikki: Jessica Hahn.
Nikki: There we go.
Salina: You heard it here first.
Salina: We do remember our own segments.
Nikki: So in that 2018 article, there were three main theories for why people respond the way they do to infomercials.
Nikki: Maybe there was just nothing else to do.
Nikki: So this was a long ago time, many moons ago, before we had on demand entertainment, before we had, like, computers and stuff.
Nikki: Maybe people just really had to watch tv and that's what was on.
Nikki: They were also just really darn entertaining.
Nikki: It was all the things I talked about a minute ago, the storytelling, the great graphics, whatever.
Nikki: They were entertaining or really bad and.
Salina: Worth making fun of.
Salina: SNL fodder.
Nikki: Well, the other part was actually a lot of times they featured long ago celebrities or stars, like, way past their, you know, there's weird phenomenon where we love to see previously famous and beautiful people get old and their lives kind of fall apart.
Nikki: Maybe some people watched it in that way they wanted a front seat to that drama.
Nikki: And then the article also talked about how the 90s were the heyday of Prozac.
Nikki: Americans were stressed, depressed, and looking for easy solutions.
Nikki: So the article quoted Mark Crispin Miller, a professor of media studies at Johns Hopkins, who said, quote, what people seem to want from the infomercial is an experience that is wholly and brainlessly affirmative.
Nikki: It may be commercial television in its purest state.
Nikki: So after all that psychological stuff, there is that other bit.
Nikki: Products are just innovative and clever, and some of them are even good.
Nikki: So I wanted to highlight the coffee clean.
Salina: It's good stuff in my cleaner right now.
Nikki: It's good stuff.
Nikki: I wanted to highlight the ten best selling as seen on tv products of all time and then talk about some more modern, as seen on tv type products, more like as seen on Amazon.
Nikki: But if you have a pesky problem you want to solve, maybe some of these nifty gadgets will do that for you.
Nikki: So, first up, best selling products of all time.
Nikki: I don't want to put you on the spot, but if you have any guesses for what might have made the list, that would be delightful.
Salina: Gosh darn it.
Nikki: Oxiclean.
Nikki: She said it.
Salina: Yes.
Salina: Thank you.
Salina: Take me out of it.
Salina: I'm like, shamwell.
Salina: I'm over here.
Salina: I'm also trying to look up what happened to the sham wow guy.
Salina: So I remember that was like, a big thing.
Salina: Anyways, that doesn't matter.
Salina: That's something different.
Salina: Top ten.
Nikki: Well, I found a list that's, like, really long, so I limited it to ten products that just really stuck out to me or had really big numbers.
Nikki: And then I'll link to the full article if folks want to look through.
Salina: Ooh, the mop.
Salina: The one that joy what's her name.
Salina: I'm doing this.
Salina: What are you doing?
Nikki: I'm just trying to figure out what's going on.
Salina: Joy.
Salina: Mop.
Salina: It's like the twisty mop.
Salina: The miracle mop.
Nikki: Miracle mop.
Salina: I don't think that's on the list.
Salina: Poor joy.
Nikki: Okay, so these are from 2019.
Nikki: So some of the numbers are a little old.
Nikki: The nutri system.
Nikki: It's the nutrition fix that helped Marie Osmond lose 50 pounds and keep it off.
Salina: Right.
Nikki: They made 697,000,000 in 2017 alone.
Nikki: Still, their market value is estimated at $1.1 billion.
Salina: Gosh, I wasn't even thinking about diet stuff.
Nikki: Yeah.
Nikki: The snuggie for the unsnugged.
Nikki: This is a blanket with sleeves.
Nikki: A wearable blanket.
Nikki: The commercials were super cringey.
Nikki: I don't know if you remember that.
Salina: Yeah.
Nikki: I've always thought of this as a joke product.
Nikki: I was shocked to learn it's on the list of bestsellers.
Nikki: According to the best numbers I could find, they made $500 million in 2013.
Salina: Okay, but is it possible that people are doing that many jokes?
Nikki: So that's kind of what I thought.
Nikki: But within five years of their launch, they sold 30 million snuggies.
Nikki: That can't all be jokes.
Salina: Wait, the potty.
Salina: Squatty.
Salina: Potty.
Salina: Is that on the list?
Nikki: That is on the list.
Nikki: I don't think I pulled it out.
Salina: I have a squatty.
Nikki: Potty, people.
Nikki: It got me.
Nikki: So I mentioned the George Foreman Grill.
Nikki: This indoor grill sold 100 million grills as of 2015.
Nikki: George, who was a two time world heavyweight boxing champ, signed on to originally earn 45% of profits.
Nikki: But by 1998, the product had made so much money, the manufacturer bought him out.
Nikki: He earned $137.5 million for his endorsement and another 11 million for, quote, grill related tv appearances.
Salina: Amazing.
Nikki: The next one that bubbled up, I mentioned earlier was that Showtime pro electric rotisserie oven.
Nikki: As of 2018, it had generated $1 billion in lifetime sales.
Nikki: More than 2.5 million rotisseries were sold.
Salina: Where do you put it?
Nikki: The money or the rotisserie?
Salina: Yeah.
Nikki: It lived on my grandmother's counter.
Salina: They're big.
Nikki: They're huge.
Salina: This is crazy to me.
Nikki: So his story, I didn't go into it, but I might have included the link in the show notes.
Nikki: His story was really interesting.
Nikki: His dad was a salesperson, and the man who invented this, and he followed in his dad's footsteps, becoming a salesperson, but he was also an inventor, and so he invented these products, like the rotisserie maker and something else.
Nikki: His company went belly up in 2018 or whatever, which was really kind of sad.
Nikki: He just recently passed away, actually.
Nikki: But he invented a lot.
Nikki: I don't understand inventors.
Nikki: Like, in this day and age, hasn't everything been invented and they still keep coming up with creative ideas?
Salina: That's true.
Nikki: Let's see.
Nikki: P 90.
Nikki: X.
Nikki: Salina.
Nikki: I know this one came up in our fitness for that one, but it also worked.
Nikki: It generated a whopping $700 million in sales as of 2012.
Salina: Yeah, it's hard to watch over and over again.
Salina: Yeah, that's the thing.
Nikki: All of those fitness videos are proactive.
Nikki: I didn't think of this one as an infomercial, but I guess it was.
Salina: Is that skin?
Nikki: Skin.
Nikki: So middle school Nikki really was confident that proactive would not only solve her skin woes, but just everything wrong in her life.
Nikki: And she wasn't alone.
Nikki: It generated $1 billion in sales in 2015 alone.
Nikki: They also had some really big spokespeople along the way.
Nikki: In 2010, the product paid 13 million to 15 million each year to spokespeople like Justin Bieber and Jessica Simpson.
Salina: That's crazy.
Nikki: You just mentioned the shamwell.
Nikki: And that being kind of a wild story, my pillow falls in that category for me because that my pillow guy kind of went down the drain during the Trump administration.
Nikki: The company claims to have invented a pillow that adjusts to fit you.
Nikki: The promise of a good night's sleep led to $300 million in revenue in 2017.
Nikki: It was 30 million pillows.
Nikki: And I do tell you, one day they're going to make a movie about that guy, because that was a spectacular fall.
Nikki: The other one that was interesting to me is first state quarters of the United States collectors map.
Nikki: Oh, so when they did that special edition run of, was that like the early.
Nikki: Yes.
Nikki: Yes.
Nikki: So this was a solution for collecting and displaying the first editions of all the state quarters, which was like a special run.
Nikki: My grandfather gave me one because he was a coin collector.
Salina: I was going to ask, I thought someone in your family was.
Nikki: Yeah, he was a coin collector.
Nikki: So he gave me one.
Nikki: This map made $180,000,000 in sales in 2010.
Salina: Just in 2010?
Nikki: Yes.
Salina: Shut the front door.
Nikki: The ped egg.
Nikki: The article calls it a pocket sized cheese grater for your feet.
Salina: Oh, God.
Nikki: It sold more than 50 million devices since 2007.
Salina: I'm not saying on the list, but that counts, right?
Nikki: Probably.
Salina: They were like little.
Nikki: I don't know if you could order them by phone or if you had to buy them in store.
Nikki: The last one I wanted to mention, I'm going to have to look that up.
Salina: I'm trying to remember, like being six years old.
Salina: Hold on, y'all.
Salina: You keep going.
Nikki: Nikki.
Nikki: The bowflex.
Nikki: Yes.
Nikki: 2.5 million Americans own this home fitness machine.
Nikki: It's a system of resistance cables, so there's no weights, but it promises amazing muscles.
Nikki: The article said it totaled $71.6 million in sales as of 2017.
Salina: Yeah.
Nikki: So here's the rest of the list.
Nikki: Squatty potty is on the list.
Nikki: Chia pet is on the list.
Nikki: There you go.
Nikki: Hair club for men.
Nikki: Total gym.
Nikki: The thighmaster.
Nikki: Petty paws.
Nikki: Chia pet.
Nikki: Amber vision sunglasses.
Nikki: The nutribullet.
Nikki: Squatty potty.
Nikki: The scrub daddy.
Nikki: Oxiclean.
Nikki: Slender tone.
Nikki: Shake weight and sweat into the oldies.
Salina: I'm going to say that I don't think that scrub daddy is as good as it used to be.
Salina: I think they did something that to probably make it more affordable for them to make trying to fix their margins to be a little better.
Salina: And I just find that I'm just running through them.
Nikki: You sure you didn't accidentally order a scrub great grandma?
Salina: A scrub fatty?
Salina: Yeah, I'm pretty sure.
Salina: So that was a shark tank thing.
Salina: And I will tell you that that is actually maybe the greatest relationship that I have to it now that I've thought about as you were talking and didn't mention when you asked me because I told you I was going to need time to.
Nikki: You needed time.
Nikki: You needed to hear some of the products.
Salina: But Shark Tank has a lot of things that wind up.
Salina: I love that show.
Salina: Casey's grandparents like ten years ago, and I love watching them go up there and pitch.
Nikki: I told you, I'm fascinated by inventors.
Salina: Yeah.
Nikki: They just identify a problem and find a solution.
Nikki: It's incredible.
Nikki: It's incredible.
Nikki: My aunt gave me a scrub daddy probably ten years ago now.
Nikki: I think I probably should just replace it.
Nikki: Maybe it's a problem.
Nikki: I haven't bought a new scrub daddy since then.
Nikki: Yeah, I just use it for washing like the tires on the car.
Salina: Are you really?
Nikki: Yeah.
Salina: Wow.
Nikki: So what about today?
Nikki: What are some as seen on tv or as seen on Amazon products you should consider in 2024, not 2014, which is what I wrote here.
Nikki: I'm going to link to.
Salina: Maybe you should have considered them in 2014.
Nikki: Probably.
Nikki: I think I probably did, actually.
Nikki: I'm going to link to the full article of 31 products, but I can personally vouch for the of glove.
Salina: It offers heat protection.
Nikki: The of glove.
Salina: Oh, excuse me.
Salina: Okay.
Nikki: It offers heat protection up to 540 degrees, making it 1000 times easier to pull your biscuits out of the oven.
Nikki: It's just a glove you put on your hand.
Salina: Was the biscuits your example or the.
Nikki: That's my example.
Nikki: I had to sweet tntb it.
Salina: Does Kyle use that for like, barbecuing, smoking situation?
Nikki: He does when he pulls the meat off the grill.
Nikki: A reaching tool.
Nikki: This doesn't actually have a name, but it has a handle you squeeze on one end that controls pinchers on the other side.
Nikki: And it's kind of long, so you can get in small spaces, you can grab hard to reach items.
Nikki: My stepdad had one the entire like as long as I remember.
Nikki: He finally bought me one a few years ago.
Nikki: They're very handy.
Nikki: No specific brand name.
Nikki: And then the drop stop car seat gap filler.
Nikki: You scrunch it between your car seats and it keeps things from falling down in the gap.
Nikki: I bought it for my car, and I loved it.
Nikki: Kyle hates it.
Salina: That might be shark tank.
Nikki: I think it might be.
Nikki: I think you're right.
Nikki: I was personally interested in a couple, like the tub shroom.
Nikki: It's a bathroom drain protector, which keeps your hair from going down the drain and clogging it all up.
Nikki: Yeah, I really like that idea.
Nikki: And the weighted neck wrap, which can be warmed in the microwave or chilled in the freezer and then put around your neck.
Salina: I have one downstairs.
Nikki: Is it good?
Nikki: Can you vouch for it?
Salina: I can't vouch for it.
Nikki: What about the squatty potty?
Nikki: Can you vouch for that?
Nikki: Does it make things?
Salina: Yes, it does.
Salina: I have to say that is not the thing that I want to vouch for.
Nikki: Everybody who has one does the thing.
Salina: Is, my friend had one, and I just happened to be.
Salina: I was like, anyways, I was like, wow, this thing is awesome.
Salina: And so we got one is the bottom line.
Nikki: Everybody says it works.
Salina: Their marketing is very funny.
Salina: Yes, that's a good example, because I think some of these are supposed to be funny and ridiculous to get your attention, right?
Nikki: Yeah.
Nikki: So there you have it.
Nikki: Charlene made a throwaway reference to an as seen on tv product, and I successfully turned it into 29 minutes of nonsense.
Salina: I love every minute.
Nikki: I am curious if anyone listening has any great as seen on tv products, either that they'd recommend or any great stories about these sorts of products.
Nikki: So if they do, they should email us sweetteatvpod@gmail.com but by now, hopefully, you know the drill.
Nikki: Email us, dm us on social, check us out on the website and share us with your family or friends and come back next week with our take on designing women season five, episode 18.
Salina: Bye.
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