It’s black Friday today, and I was somehow reminded of Ron Popeil [1], of Chop-o-Matic fame, inventor of many well-known household products [2]. He has sold more than a billion dollars worth of rotisseries. I noticed that many of Popeil’s infomercials are available on YouTube, including this one featuring his food dehydrator:
Popeil, who was quite successful as an inventor, was equally impressive as a marketer. He explains his approach to inventing and marketing here [3].
Tonight it occurred to me that even though I saw Popeil’s commercials decades ago, I remembered much of Popeil’s shtick. I especially remember the audiences applauding on cue. It was somehow effective even though I knew that these people had been paid to applaud on cue. What I didn’t know was how the audience members were paid, and it was not with money, as you’ll read here. [1]As you can read in the same article, [1] Popeil is now getting ready to market what he characterizes as his final invention, a deep fryer.
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