Infomercial Industry Acts Now

Today's New York Times coverage of the Electronic Retailing Association's plan for initiating self-regulation, Infomercials Clean Up Their Pitch (but wait, there's more) outlines what sounds like a step in the right direction by the legitimate players in this segment of direct marketers.

With infomercials touting everything from the somewhat useful to the downright dangerous, the Association will announce a self-regulation plan that would empower legitimate pitch persons to blow the whistle on scam offers, with FTC enforcement, assuming the plan is implemented.

While one representative of a firm recently fined for misleading customers acknowleged that "mistakes were made," without saying by whom, you just gotta love what industry pioneer and leader Ron Popeil had to say about the reasons this step is necessary. In today's article, Nat Ives wrote:

"Any time a customer gets burned, what are the chances of them sticking their neck out again and buying from another infomercial?" said Ron Popeil, the infomercial impresario who gained fame marketing products like the Pocket Fisherman, the Dial-O-Matic Food Slicer and the Electric Food Dehydrator.

Mr. Popeil said he favored any system that made legitimacy paramount. "It will weed out those people who continue to make money at the expense of other people," he said, "people who are here today and gone to Maui."
(http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/12/business/media/12adco.html?pagewanted=print&position=)

Whether or not the ability to make your own turkey jerky, or carry your fishing pole around in your glove compartment is on the top of your wish list, Popeil, has caught the big idea. As in any genre of direct marketing, scammers in the infomercial segment can poison the lake for the legitimate fish, including his company. Good for the game wardens at the Electronic Retailing Association if they make this plan work.