KAI RYSSDAL: In every rescession there are businesses that defy the economic trendline. Today on our series, “The Upside,” another industry that’s doing better than most. It’ll probably be no end of ...

CLEARWATER, Fla. (AP) -- In a sprawling studio, Kevin Harrington is watching a TV pitchman put a shapely model through her paces on a new exercise contraption soon to be featured in a half-hour ...

The counterintuitive success of infomercials is directly correlated to a decrease in the price of media time, according to mechanical and aerospace engineering professor Dan Nosenchuck, who teaches a ...

MICHAEL JACKSON was not the only famous 50-year-old to meet an untimely death in the past few days. On June 28th it was reported that Billy Mays, America's “infomercial king”, had gone to meet the ...

NOTHING GOOD IS on TV between 1 a.m. and 6 a.m., and for good reason. Nobody's trying. It's the time period known euphemistically in the media business as the "Post Late Fringe," and less ...

If this was yesterday, I would almost certainly think that this was an April Fool’s joke, but alas….it is not. Greg Gumbel is suing a company called Encore because they used his likeness in ...

Riding on the success of the first Gymkhana Practice video that grabbed the attention of over 20 million viewers worldwide, the Gymkhana TWO video takes infomercials to the next level. Unlike other ...

The TV pitchman Billie Mays is dead, of a heart attack last month, but his pitch goes on. For Mighty Putty. For the Awesome Auger. For Jupiter Jack, a wireless speakerphone. Even from the grave, ...

While not quite a household product, the infomercials for Proactiv acne system are ubiquitous. So of course, we bought some just in case we had an angry blemish attack. Wouldn't you know, but I had an ...

If you don’t know what a Snuggie is by now … well, actually how could you not? Infomercials for the floor-dusting, cloak-like garment have taken over the airwaves. It’s marketed as the blanket with ...

CLEARWATER, Fla.CLEARWATER, Fla. — In a sprawling studio, Kevin Harrington is watching a TV pitchman put a shapely model through her paces on a new exercise contraption soon to be featured in a ...