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Billy Mays Dead

landtuna said:
Lkeller said:
If you folks want to trash Mays (again) - go right ahead.
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I didn't mean to imply I was trashing Mays. Hell, I never knew the man. But his 'in your face' style of selling is very offensive to me and, like with Michael Jackson, when he came on I hit the channel button. Couldn't stand to listen to either one of them. In fact, he is one of the primary reasons I dumped cable not too long ago just as Jackson was a primary reason why MTV has never been seen in my home.

But I still, after all these years, fail to understand how being obnoxious and loud is expected to sell something (particularly something that isn't well known or desired).

Mays seemed to be a throwback to an earlier day of wagon-mounted snake oil salesmen - only with electronic assistance.
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Youve trashed him on two boards here at Radio-Info. Whats your beef? Not talented enough to get into any part of the business?

Loud? Sure. Obnoxious? Youve got to go way down the food chain ...oh, I'd say about where you are, to find obnoxious...

Give it up and get a life, ok?
 
1069_KIFR said:
A couple of thoughts here:

1: He must have been effective, otherwise companies would not hire him to sell their products.

2: Did he get hurt/die on the return trip from The Tonight Show Starring Conan O'Brien?
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he was sort of a 21st century Popeil, you got to hand it to the guy, he did create a Brand. i don't think he took himself too seriously, he knew what he was annoying, but effective for his clients.
 
cspotrun said:
he was sort of a 21st century Popeil, you got to hand it to the guy, he did create a Brand. i don't think he took himself too seriously, he knew what he was annoying, but effective for his clients.
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I wouldn't compare him to Ron Popeil. Popeil invented most of the products (I think) but, even if he didn't, he always put his name on the products. Mays just pushed the products, but never branded his name on them. I was just thinking of all the products Billy Mays has pushed:

Oxyclean
Kaboom
Mighty Mendit
Mighty Mendit Wood (or Mighty Puddy wood, I saw the "Jolly Roger" shoot on Pitchmen)
Mighty Puddy
And there's this scratch pen I can't remember the name of that I've just seen the commercials recently.

I respect him a lot for all he did. In some respects, I'm jealous, as I hope to have a career like his. I'm sure glad he did do Pitchmen, as it showed us the real side of Billy. He was a great guy whom I wish I could've met.

Sidenote: If Discovery decides to continue with Pitchmen, and Billy Sullivan agrees to stay on, would the next "Pitchman" host to step in line be Vince, the Shamwow guy?
 
Vince was supposed to be on Pitchmen, but was dropped after his arrest for beating up a prostitute.

I usually enjoyed Billy's pitches, but Vince may be the most annoying person to ever appear on television.
 
I find it interesting that some on here hate commercials and commercial pitchmen. It's ironic that television and radio make their revenue from -- you guessed it -- ADVERTISING!!!

If most people didn't watch the commercials (and weren't influenced by them), then there wouldn't be such thing as "free" tv. We would all be paying 10 times as much for cable and/or satellite television.
 
I made the observation that celebrity deaths seem
to come in threes. I also put a P.S. on the Farrah
thread about Walter Cronkite's condition. AFAIK,
he is still alive but who can predict someone's death?
At any rate, we have two-thirds of the next triumvirate
this afternoon: Billy Mays and Gale Storm (see Classic TV).
 
Studio20 said:
Youve trashed him on two boards here at Radio-Info. Whats your beef? Not talented enough to get into any part of the business?

Loud? Sure. Obnoxious? Youve got to go way down the food chain ...oh, I'd say about where you are, to find obnoxious...

Give it up and get a life, ok?
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You don't read well, do you? I said I wasn't trashing the man but rather his style. I don't compete with him.

formeraa said:
I find it interesting that some on here hate commercials and commercial pitchmen. It's ironic that television and radio make their revenue from -- you guessed it -- ADVERTISING!!!

If most people didn't watch the commercials (and weren't influenced by them), then there wouldn't be such thing as "free" tv. We would all be paying 10 times as much for cable and/or satellite television.
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I don't 'hate' commercials or their pitchmen. Only those that shout or are otherwise obnoxious (or long winded). For the same reasons I didn't like Mays work I also change the channel immediately if one of those local, loud car dealer ads come on.

For as much business as they may generate they also put a number of people off. I have had the habit of making a mental note of such advertisers for many years now and will not do business with them.

You don't have to be obnoxious to sell. Before Lou Grubb (car dealer) sold out several years ago his TV and radio ads were exactly what should be the norm for all advertising. Get your message across in a quiet and polite manner.
 
A great American success story, an example of a guy making the best of his opportunities. Billy was pretty typical of the type of guy you'd meet in any shot-and-a-beer joint around Pittsburgh. He rode his chance meeting with the Orange Glo people at the Pittsburgh Home Show to a spot in TV history. (think how many people would like to have that job!) All of McKees Rocks mourns his loss today.
 
Billy had a somewhat annoying, yet very successful, sales schtick. As time went on, you could tell that there was a heck of a nice guy behind the pitch. And he was successfully branching out beyond the Oxy Clean type stuff and into the mainstream. His ESPN promos were hilarious. And, apparently, he had just signed on to do an ad campaign for Taco Bell.

Honestly, I feel really bad that we lost Billy Mays because he seemed to have a very bright future in front of him. Basically, Billy was a nice guy who made good - which is an increasingly rare thing these days.

My condolences to his family at this terrible time.
 
Heck, he could have made a decent amount just doing personalized liners for jocks(if any even use them anymore):
"Hi, Billy Mays here for (insert jock name here) and if you want a good clean product to listen to on the clock to guarantee a fast, friendly workday, it's the (insert show name) Show on WXXX.
 
Geez, that's really distasteful! On Sunday morning, not long after hearing the news, a cable channel we had on (can't remember which) showed an Arm and Hammer ad with Mays in it. We all groaned. Every one of us found it to be in poor taste that nobody pulled the ad.

I think that the Mighty Putty people will find that airing the ads will create a backlash because this news is too fresh and everyone outside of Bin Laden's cave knows about Mays' death. It'll go over about as well as a lead balloon.
 
informercials are so ubiquitous (and running largely on automated systems) that you probably could not get them all pulled that quickly, even with the best of intentions.
 
BRNout said:
Geez, that's really distasteful! On Sunday morning, not long after hearing the news, a cable channel we had on (can't remember which) showed an Arm and Hammer ad with Mays in it. We all groaned. Every one of us found it to be in poor taste that nobody pulled the ad.
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Poor taste it may very well be but there have been a few times in the past where a commercial that featured a recently deceased spokeman did continue to air after the death because that was what the estate/family wanted.

Back in the mid 80's, Lorne Greene had cut a few spots for some insurance plan and those ads did continue to air for a year or two after the death of Lorne Greene because that was what Lorne Greene's family had wanted.
 
Heck, During The Price Is Right, Colonial Penn Insurance still had the Lou Rawls ads running. Until about a couple of weeks later when they were able to edit him out of the ads.
 
The last two examples are excellent; however, in this case, Mays was known for being THE pitchman. It's all he was known for. The other fellows were Hollywood stars who happened to be doing ads. Each had movies and TV shows floating around out there (and still do).

Also, with today's 24/7 news cycles, we all know more of the nitty-gritty details about Billy Mays and his death within the first day or so than people knew about Rawls and/or Greene when they died. The spotlight wasn't the same then. For example, you didn't have the 911 call describing their condition at the time that they were found dead. I don't know, it just seems different now.

And I'm pretty sure that Mays' family was too busy to give permission for the continued use of Billy in the 30 second A n H spot that we saw that morning. Basically 2 minutes after seeing the story of his death. It seemed tasteless; the folks running the channel should have pulled it.
 
BRNout said:
The last two examples are excellent; however, in this case, Mays was known for being THE pitchman. It's all he was known for. The other fellows were Hollywood stars who happened to be doing ads. Each had movies and TV shows floating around out there (and still do).

Also, with today's 24/7 news cycles, we all know more of the nitty-gritty details about Billy Mays and his death within the first day or so than people knew about Rawls and/or Greene when they died. The spotlight wasn't the same then. For example, you didn't have the 911 call describing their condition at the time that they were found dead. I don't know, it just seems different now.
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Except that Lou Rawls died only 3 years ago - in 2006. Rawls was primarily a singer, not an actor, and he didn't do many commercials. Mays' commercials were all over the place 24/7. The people in charge at the various cable networks and TV stations can be forgiven if it didn't occur to them to pull the ads for a few hours.
 
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