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ShamWOW

Printed From: Commercials I Hate!
Category: Commercials You Hate!
Forum Name: Commercial Talk
Forum Description: Discuss commercial trends, or ads you don't hate.
URL: http://www.commercialsihate.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=721
Printed Date: 28 Mar 2024 at 10:43am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 11.04 - http://www.webwizforums.com


Topic: ShamWOW
Posted By: IHaveStandards
Subject: ShamWOW
Date Posted: 25 May 2008 at 1:59am
I admit this is one of the hokiest direct sale ads I've ever seen. But I still like it. Vince, the Shamwow guy, isn't really obnoxious or anything (like some other TV sales guy who shall remain nameless but whose initials are BILLY MAYS) and he's somebody I feel like I know. While I was in college, I had a job demonstrating organs and pianos at fairs and shows, and I got to know a couple of these carny type sales guys and felt a little sorry for them...what a life, traveling all over to shows, doing that pitch day after day--although a couple said they made really good money.
 
I also love Vince's little earpiece mike--nice rock star touch--and how he says "Are you following me, camera guy?" as he moves from the soggy carpet to the pie plate where he's squeezing out the spilled cola all of three or four inches away. Finally, when he gets to the price, and announces the special deal..."If you call now--'cause we can't do this all day--you'll get EIGHT shamwows for the same low price of 19.95!!!"
 
We can't do this all day??? That's the same deal that's been on your website for months!!!
What a hoot!!!
 
Whatever, I do like shammies for washing the car and I am going to get on the website and order these things. I don't see how they could fake that cola thing in the ad!


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There is none so blind as he who will not see. -- Ray Stevens



Replies:
Posted By: shadow
Date Posted: 25 May 2008 at 4:56am
This was just on.  I am torn here.  On the one hand it annoys me because he is just another talking head pitching his wares, but on the other, he isn't offending my senses like some screaming momo who feels the need to interject the item's name into every sentence as if it were a punctuation.

I'll just say that I don't hate it.
My 7 year old daughter loves to walk around the house mimicking that one lady who says....'all I can say is shammmmwow!'  My poor wife hasn't a clue as to what she means.  Once she watched the commercial, she cracked up at my daughter's ability.


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was feeling nostalgic


Posted By: debwood1999-1
Date Posted: 20 Jun 2008 at 9:44pm
I used a bunch of ShamWows (before they were called ShamWows) for years.  They worked great for drying my sweaters and picking up pet accidents.  BTW, I like this ad too.  Vince (the announcer) isn't annoying.


Posted By: Wild Starchild
Date Posted: 20 Jun 2008 at 10:09pm
LOL You guys are entitled to your opinions, and if it doesn't offend you, then God bless ya, and more power to you, but that guy irritates the living Hell out of me. Although, I wouldn't mind owning the product, IF it works like they say it does, and I might even order some to see. But that guy, just makes me think of those guys on city street corners with the cups and balls, or the cards. He's so, 'street performer". OF COURSE the camera guy is following him, it's a commercial!!! LOL I know, let's turn off the camera and do a radio ad and show a black screen. Sorry, for raining on your parade, but I don't like this one, although, it does seem LESS annoying that most. The guy isn't screaching like a screach owl, and there isn't a bunch of infomercial music. I can live with it, but damnit, I won't like it!! LOL
 
 


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AW DAMN!!!! Wild Shot the friggin TV again!!!


Posted By: musicman
Date Posted: 21 Jun 2008 at 2:43am
He kind of reminds me of a Mafia movie or a Dick Tracy character.  One of the punks, ya know what I mean?
 
I find him entertaining.
 
Look, in order to get "Free" TV someones gotta pay for it.  As long as they aren't obnoxious or condescending or downright gross, I'm Ok with it.
 
"Free" only because I pay for cable.


Posted By: powerfunk
Date Posted: 22 Jun 2008 at 9:37pm
"Are you following me, camera guy?" is priceless. "Yeah, my name's Todd, and I know how to do my job, jerk."

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Always, ALWAYS get CHILI on your nachos bell grande.


Posted By: DirtyD79
Date Posted: 26 Jun 2008 at 1:31am
I wonder who he's talking to in the headset. I want to get one and ask him if he knows where there's any parties or something. He reminds me of that one WWE wrestler The Miz.
http://www.mikethemiz.com/ - http://www.mikethemiz.com/


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Mind on My Money, Money on My Beer


Posted By: swraman
Date Posted: 15 Jul 2008 at 7:00pm
Vince makes me want to take a powerdrill to my forehead.


Posted By: musicman
Date Posted: 15 Jul 2008 at 11:21pm
Originally posted by DirtyD79 DirtyD79 wrote:

I wonder who he's talking to in the headset. I want to get one and ask him if he knows where there's any parties or something. He reminds me of that one WWE wrestler The Miz.
http://www.mikethemiz.com/ - http://www.mikethemiz.com/
 
He's probably talking to the producer. 
 
Vince, "Hey, can we do this all day?" 
Producer, "No"
Vince (to the camera), "Ya know, we can't do this all day."
 
 
 


Posted By: Tiz
Date Posted: 16 Jul 2008 at 12:16am
Originally posted by swraman swraman wrote:

Vince makes me want to take a powerdrill to my forehead.
 
Those 2 women at the end are worse.
"I can't live without it."
"All I can say is Sham..." "WOW!"Dead


Posted By: PaWolf
Date Posted: 16 Jul 2008 at 1:07am
uhhh...will someone let me know when nobody's looking so I can quickly and quietly beat the crap out of 'Vince' and shove that mike down his throat?


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X               <sig.nature>
"What we do for ourselves dies with us, What we do for others is and remains immortal." - Albert Pike


Posted By: swraman
Date Posted: 16 Jul 2008 at 3:53am
lol@last 3 posts.  all true haha.


Posted By: TomAnderson
Date Posted: 16 Jul 2008 at 4:07pm
The part that bothers me most about the commercial is when he pours water on the scrap of carpet.  If you watch carefully they cut the segment after he pours the cola.  He pours the liquid, it runs out from under the carpet.  Then there's a quick little dissolve, and the scrap of carpet is no longer in a puddle.  He drops a folded Shamwow on top of the carpet--and it's possible that the Shamwow already is soaked in cola--barely touches it and it soaks up all this cola.  Right there, it says to me SCAM.  If it works, do one continuous shot. 


Posted By: CatWoman
Date Posted: 16 Jul 2008 at 4:23pm
Originally posted by TomAnderson TomAnderson wrote:

The part that bothers me most about the commercial is when he pours water on the scrap of carpet.  If you watch carefully they cut the segment after he pours the cola.  He pours the liquid, it runs out from under the carpet.  Then there's a quick little dissolve, and the scrap of carpet is no longer in a puddle.  He drops a folded Shamwow on top of the carpet--and it's possible that the Shamwow already is soaked in cola--barely touches it and it soaks up all this cola.  Right there, it says to me SCAM.  If it works, do one continuous shot. 
 
My husband noticed this same thing, Tom.


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Posted By: Nautigal
Date Posted: 21 Jul 2008 at 3:52am
Originally posted by TomAnderson TomAnderson wrote:

The part that bothers me most about the commercial is when he pours water on the scrap of carpet.  If you watch carefully they cut the segment after he pours the cola.  He pours the liquid, it runs out from under the carpet.  Then there's a quick little dissolve, and the scrap of carpet is no longer in a puddle.  He drops a folded Shamwow on top of the carpet--and it's possible that the Shamwow already is soaked in cola--barely touches it and it soaks up all this cola.  Right there, it says to me SCAM.  If it works, do one continuous shot. 
 
Yup, I was just coming here to say that! I had only seen the commercial once when I saw this thread, and happened to see it again and pay attention because someone had said the cola thing would be hard to fake. Sure enough, it's cut between the pouring/puddling and the pickup, and the Shamwow pretty much has to be full of cola when he drops it on the carpet! Doesn't mean it doesn't work, of course, but it's probably not as great as that if they can't do one shot.
 


Posted By: promontorium
Date Posted: 23 Jul 2008 at 2:06am
Originally posted by debwood1999-1 debwood1999-1 wrote:

I used a bunch of ShamWows (before they were called ShamWows) for years.  They worked great for drying my sweaters and picking up pet accidents.  BTW, I like this ad too.  Vince (the announcer) isn't annoying.
 
Duh. They're called Shammys. And they've been around forever. I knew a lot of people who used them in swimming because you can dry off in a few seconds and ring it out and walk home dry without a wet towell. And of course, any professional car washers use them standard. Shammys are great.
 
 What you all need to know is, Vince of ShamWow is Vince Offer. The criminal mastermind of "The Underground Comedy Movie" You might have forgotten what that is, but I haven't, I was one of the unfortunate who was duped into buying that terrible thing. People who had their lives destroyed by that horrible horrible excuse for an independent "movie" helped vote it to the bottom 100 of IMDB.
 
 To see him years later still doing infomercial ads is pleasing. Way to go Vince. Way to go.


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I love commercials, for the most part.


Posted By: testudfan
Date Posted: 27 Jul 2008 at 5:55pm
Originally posted by promontorium promontorium wrote:

Originally posted by debwood1999-1 debwood1999-1 wrote:

I used a bunch of ShamWows (before they were called ShamWows) for years.  They worked great for drying my sweaters and picking up pet accidents.  BTW, I like this ad too.  Vince (the announcer) isn't annoying.
 
Duh. They're called Shammys. And they've been around forever. I knew a lot of people who used them in swimming because you can dry off in a few seconds and ring it out and walk home dry without a wet towell. And of course, any professional car washers use them standard. Shammys are great.
 
 What you all need to know is, Vince of ShamWow is Vince Offer. The criminal mastermind of "The Underground Comedy Movie" You might have forgotten what that is, but I haven't, I was one of the unfortunate who was duped into buying that terrible thing. People who had their lives destroyed by that horrible horrible excuse for an independent "movie" helped vote it to the bottom 100 of IMDB.
 
 To see him years later still doing infomercial ads is pleasing. Way to go Vince. Way to go.


The better spelling is "chamois" ("sham-wah"), which is actually where this "clever" play on words for ShamWow originates.


Posted By: musicman
Date Posted: 27 Jul 2008 at 6:33pm
This ad is a sham. Wow I never would have suspected.


Posted By: jppuertorico85
Date Posted: 11 Aug 2008 at 9:21pm
i love vince and his speaking manner in this commercial...complete opposite of billy mays!

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Is visa really the only card accepted at [INSERT ANY SPORTING EVENT]???


Posted By: shamWOW
Date Posted: 13 Aug 2008 at 10:38am
I HATE this commercial. I think it mostly has to do with how often it's on.

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Ya followin' me, camera guy?


Posted By: danooct1
Date Posted: 14 Aug 2008 at 6:24am
If you look at any reviews on the internet, the reviews by actual customers are always 1/10 and the reviews by company plugs (which are fairly obvious) are 10/10. Sounds like a massive scam to me.

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BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!


Posted By: mutelover
Date Posted: 21 Aug 2008 at 6:36pm
I hate the commercial,the guy is dork.
He reminds me of some guy at the circus or county fare that will rip you off in a heartbeat.
I don't trust him for one second,
he is better than Billy Mays,but that goes without saying.


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The inventor of the mute button knew billy mays would show up one day.


Posted By: badbearduke
Date Posted: 21 Aug 2008 at 8:03pm
Its more like SCAMWOW!


Posted By: shebazz
Date Posted: 30 Aug 2008 at 4:43pm
I have something similar to that - it's called "A Towel". It miraculously dries up spills like they weren't there. I can also wring it out, because it's made up of this stuff called cloth. And if I film the drying process and then speed it up drastically, it looks truly amazing!

I also have a Bluetooth headset, so I can look like some call center douche while doing it. Huh, also I wear collared shirts often. Don't have the messy-looking haircut, mine's just authentically messy... damn.


Posted By: Wild Starchild
Date Posted: 01 Sep 2008 at 7:19pm
Yeah, that scene where he cuts away from the carpet...TOTAL BULLSHIIT!!!!! I have been a musician most of my life but I have had a host of other jobs when I wasn't touring or in the studio..one of which was building/ renovating houses. I have pulled up enough old carpet in my life to know anything you spill on it is going to leave a stain on the back. You might get most of it, but you aren't going to remove every trace. If it works so damned great, why have the little break in the scene?? Notice how that carpet isn't even the least little bit damp when he picks it up. This is designed to trick, fool, flim-flam, hornswaggle, and deceive common folks who aren't mechanically inclinced or those who weren't blessed with any common sense!! Anyone who has carpet and has spilled something on it before knows, no matter how much you tamp it with a towel it's gonna stay wet for a while. Thge problem isn't that your towel isn't absorbent enough, it's that carpet has padding under it and the liquid soaks through the cheap stuff to the bottom. the padding is a huge sheet of diced up and glued together sponges. NO amount of SHAM-WOWWING is gonna dry carpet like the damned commercial says. I'd be willing to bet the farm on it. I know what the hell I am talking about to cause I have five kids, and I have had plenty experience with spills!! LOL

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AW DAMN!!!! Wild Shot the friggin TV again!!!


Posted By: ThreadKiller
Date Posted: 08 Oct 2008 at 5:00am

This is incredible. I hadn't checked this thread in awhile, and just read testudfan's post about Vince being Vince Offer. I'd never heard of that comedy movie, but Googled and found this interesting tidbit from Wiki:

Offer, who appeared on infomericals for his movie and also sold kitchen utensils at a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swap_meet - swap meet , appears as a spokesman in a commercial for Shamwow! absorbent towels that began airing in the spring of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008 - 2008 . Offer's work on the ad received some comment in the media. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slate_%28magazine%29 - Slate.com 's Seth Stevenson praised Offer for his "impressive and subtle mastery of the pitchman's art" and wondered if Offer's "abrasive manner might also mark a unique, new strategy in the annals of pitchdom." Stevenson compared Offer to earlier, gentler television pitchmen like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Mays - Billy Mays and the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_Shopping_Network - Home Shopping Network hosts and concluded that Offer's "smooth-talking condescension" was more suited to the present http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeitgeist - zeitgeist than the "earnest fervor" of spokesmen like Mays and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Popeil - Ron Popeil . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vince_Offer#cite_note-Stevenson-4 - [5]

That's pretty incredible.  I never thought I'd see the word "gentler" and "Billy Mays" in the same sentence.


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Hundreds of threads killed.


Posted By: Asnotseenontv
Date Posted: 10 Oct 2008 at 2:48am
Originally posted by ThreadKiller ThreadKiller wrote:

Stevenson compared Offer to earlier, gentler television pitchmen like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Mays - Billy Mays

 
ConfusedConfusedConfused
 
YOU CALL THIS YELLER IN YOUR EAR EVERY TIME GENTLE? WHAT ARE YOU SMOKING?


Posted By: Ad nauseous
Date Posted: 10 Oct 2008 at 3:02am
since when was Bill Mays considered a gentler pitchman?

Does this mean the louder you get as a pitchman the more gentler you're considered?
LOL


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One good thing about TV-you could always turn it off


Posted By: Ad Endless Nauseum
Date Posted: 11 Oct 2008 at 12:18pm
Vince reminds me of one of the guys in the 50s retro group Sha Na Na. Not Bowser, but one of the others.

As for yelling the ad copy, we have one particular loudmouth here on the Left Coast. I don't know his name, but he has an enormously big bushy handlebar mustache, and yells the ad copy for lots of the local RV ads, the antique show at the San Diego Fairgrounds, and other similar things. I hate ads that YELL at you. I refuse to give them ANY of my business at all. In fact, when an ad YELLs at me, I most often locate a direct competitor of the yeller, and give the competitor my business, making very sure that he knows that I am at his business because I HATE the ads of the other guy. It is my small way of trying to inform at least one businessman somewhere that yelling ads backfire with me, so please don't succumb to the temptation to make one.

I'm a new member, just joined. But I've been a member in my heart for decades, long before the forum existed, or before I knew about it. I will be posting frequently, as I personally hate about 98% of everything (ad-wise) I hear on the radio or TV. Ads in the newspaper don't bother me, as I can quickly flip past them, noticing the very few that interest me.

On the other hand, I am addicted to AM talk radio. Regardless of what everyone else's political positions are here, commercial advertising "pays the freight" on radio. If they don't broadcast ads, they go out of business. I try to support my local station, but the idiotic ads often make me want to smash my radio with a sledge hammer to stop the @#$% ads!!!

And the endlessly repeated toll free phone numbers! Believe me, if I have any interest at all in a product or service, I will either get the number the first time, or I'll be ready to write it down the next time the ad repeats. And the ad WILL repeat! 80 or 90 thousand times before the ad campaign ends. I do not need the number to be repeated 20 times during a single play of the ad.

That's enough for now.


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"Si vis pacem, para bellum"

Defense de fumer et de cracher

A message brought to you by this station and the Ad Council.


Posted By: the real prozac
Date Posted: 13 Oct 2008 at 2:57am
Originally posted by Asnotseenontv Asnotseenontv wrote:

Originally posted by ThreadKiller ThreadKiller wrote:

Stevenson compared Offer to earlier, gentler television pitchmen like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Mays -

 
ConfusedConfusedConfused
 
YOU CALL THIS YELLER IN YOUR EAR EVERY TIME GENTLE? WHAT ARE YOU SMOKING?


He probably meant to say that Offer is a gentler version of Billy Mays.  I've seen the Shamwow demo live.  They work, but not like the commercial wants you to believe.  As mentioned previously the pad under carpet is what soaks up most of the liquid spilled on it.  Of course you'll be able to get most of the liquid out of a piece of carpet with no pad under it.


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All your internets are belong to me.-Anonymous
Rules 3,4,5,8 and 78


Posted By: echoroc
Date Posted: 17 Oct 2008 at 1:25am
 Seriously though, you guys - these things are awesome.  I stopped buying paper towels because i was using too many.  I got these shamwow towels at a fair after watching the dude do the cola in the carpet thing.  No scene break.  They actually work really really well.  Ten times better than paper towels or regular towels. 



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