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The best, most effective tv pitchman

S

searadiofreak

Guest
As a companion to the other thread on the worst tv pitchman...

I have two. First, Ed McMahon, in his prime, could sell anything. And he did, especially on the early Carson shows.

My other is car dealer Cal Worthington (and his dog spot), local in Southern California, and at various times in other markets like Phoenix, Sacramento, Houston, and Seattle. Though he was charged with deceptive advertising, he could sell cars on TV like nobody else! He seemed sincere and friendly and so downright folksy!
 
Rod Roddy. I don't think I need to qualify this one.
 
Absolutely, Ed McMahon back in the day. NO contest

Also agree with Cal Worthington as a local guy (How can you top a guy flying upside down in a plane and saying, "I'll do anything to sell you a car").

Honorable mention to the Ronald McDonald, the Empire Carpet Guy, and Joe Isuzu.

Largely forgotten today, but right up there with any of 'em ....Arthur Godfrey hawking Lipton Soup/Tea and all manner of other stuff back in the early days of TV.
 
I remember one of Arthur Godfrey's last TV spots....for life insurance....then he passed...to be followed by Richard Basehart ("Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea")...the he passed.

But Godfrey was great. Also sold Julius LaRosa a bill of goods*

*closed circuit for the over 50 crowd.
 
searadiofreak said:
As a companion to the other thread on the worst tv pitchman...

I have two. First, Ed McMahon, in his prime, could sell anything. And he did, especially on the early Carson shows.

My other is car dealer Cal Worthington (and his dog spot), local in Southern California, and at various times in other markets like Phoenix, Sacramento, Houston, and Seattle. Though he was charged with deceptive advertising, he could sell cars on TV like nobody else! He seemed sincere and friendly and so downright folksy!
Click to expand...

Cal was (correction - is) a showman. In the early 1950s (before selling cars), he was a radio disc jockey (KXLA 1110 AM in LA), and starting in the late 1960s, Cal hosted an early county music show called Cal's Corral out of KCOP Los Angeles. It was 3 hours long. Glenn Campbell, Johnny Cash and Buck Owens appeared often, among many others.

Worthington was also a bomber pilot in World War 2.
 
Studio20 said:
Godfrey was great. Also sold Julius LaRosa a bill of goods*

*closed circuit for the over 50 crowd.
Click to expand...

Yes....and La Rosa became more famous for getting fired on the air by Godfrey than for anything he ever did with his singing (or later radio broadcasting) talent....which was not inconsiderable.
 
Godfrey may very well be the medium's all-time
greatest pitchman; he could sell anything.

I have to give a nod to Ed Herlihy, the voice of
Kraft. And does anybody remember Andy Griffith's
Ritz crackers commercial ("Good cracker. GOOOOD
cracker!")? He made me so hungry I had to get some
Ritz crackers when he was done. And honorable mention
to James Garner and Mariette Hartley's Polaroid commercials;
the chemistry was fantastic.

On the other end, my vote for the worst matchup of
pitchman and product was a short-lived McDonald's
commercial with John Houseman. I think in the public's
mind, the cultivated Houseman (or Professor Kingsfield,
if you prefer) wouldn't be caught dead at a McDonald's.
 
I caught the end of Godfrey's career on AFRTS in Vietnam. I could never understand what older people saw in him. He always sounded like he needed an urgent sinus operation.
 
Re: Trehe best, most effective tv pitchman

I think its safe to say Godfrey was phoning it in for last ten years or so of his radio career in the 60s and early 70s. I remember one broadcast I was listening to where he was trying to cover Three Dog Night's "Joy to the World". Hilarious....unintentionally. He paid little attention to the actual lyrics and was adding lines like "Joy to CBS".

Also agree that Ed Herlihy deserves a nod for all his Kraft cheese commercials. Then, also from that era, you had Don Wilson hawking Lucky Strikes for years on Jack Benny's TV and Radio shows.
 
bpatrick said:
Godfrey may very well be the medium's all-time
greatest pitchman; he could sell anything.

I have to give a nod to Ed Herlihy, the voice of
Kraft. And does anybody remember Andy Griffith's
Ritz crackers commercial ("Good cracker. GOOOOD
cracker!")? He made me so hungry I had to get some
Ritz crackers when he was done. And honorable mention
to James Garner and Mariette Hartley's Polaroid commercials;
the chemistry was fantastic.

On the other end, my vote for the worst matchup of
pitchman and product was a short-lived McDonald's
commercial with John Houseman. I think in the public's
mind, the cultivated Houseman (or Professor Kingsfield,
if you prefer) wouldn't be caught dead at a McDonald's.
Click to expand...

It's amazing how long advertising sticks in our minds. With the news yesterday that Citigroup may be buying Smith-Barney, the first thing that popped into my head was that old John Houseman ad campaign. I must have somehow missed his McD's commercial, but I imagine it went something like this:

Give yourself a break today, and get a Big Mac. You earhhhhhnnneed it!
 
That's a good tag line for Houseman's McDonald's
commercials! As I remember the commercials were
pulled rather quickly, but while they lasted he talked
mostly about value for your money rather than the
food itself (I just can't see Houseman eating a Big Mac).
And I don't expect any disagreement that Smith Barney
was better suited to Houseman.

Does anyone remember John Wayne's commercials for,
I believe, Bufferin? They aired back in the '70s and also
got pulled quickly. Big John the he-man taking aspirin for
a headache? No way!
 
Mismatch? About 25 years ago, I was listening to a live Jimmy Buffet concert sponsored by Buick (Buffet himself did not do any of the pitches). Of course, today, Buffet falls perfectly into Buick's demo.
 
I'll second Andy Griffith. I remember the ad he did in the 80s as Ma Bell was breaking up reasurring folks that he didn't have to do anything to keep "old reliable" (wired rotary phone) on the job
 
Don Rickles for Right Guard, Paul Lynde (and Rod Serling) for Manufacturer's Hanover Bank, and Robert Young for Sanka Brand. (Ahahahahahahaha)

Gee, I'm showing my age :D
 
gr8oldies said:
My late grandmother kept that hard wired rotary phone until the day she went into the nursing home.
Click to expand...

My grandmother did the same - her phone was the late 40, early 50s model - quite heavy, black of course, and made out of "bakelite," which as near as I could tell, was thick heavy plastic.
 
I remember a joke of sorts about Robert Young's
Sanka commercials: was it Robert Young or Marcus
Welby recommending the coffee?

I also rather enjoyed Lorne Greene's Alpo dog food
commercials.

BTW, we lost a classic pitchman: Ricardo Montalban,
for Chrysler Cordoba.

Does anyone have an opinion about Florence Henderson's
Polident commercials, or Rosemary Clooney's "extra value
is what you get when you buy Coronet" (toilet tissue)?
 
bpatrick said:
I remember a joke of sorts about Robert Young's
Sanka commercials: was it Robert Young or Marcus
Welby recommending the coffee?

I also rather enjoyed Lorne Greene's Alpo dog food
commercials.

BTW, we lost a classic pitchman: Ricardo Montalban,
for Chrysler Cordoba.

Does anyone have an opinion about Florence Henderson's
Polident commercials, or Rosemary Clooney's "extra value
is what you get when you buy Coronet" (toilet tissue)?
Click to expand...

Agreed about Ricardo Montalban - I found one of his Cordoba commercials yesterday on You-tube. Very slick and expertly done. If I'd had the money for a new car in 1975 and wanted a gas-guzzling tank, he probably would have convinced me. Rosemary's jingle was very effective - one of those that stuck in your brain like glue.

Florence used to drive me up a wall - I would avoid anything she sold. It was only more recently that I've come to appreciate her, after seeing her interviewed on talk shows...she's a bright, funny person, and has a lot of fun with her own (Brady-like) image.
 
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