by Jonelle Jankowski

Created on: July 03, 2009

I feel I should say something about Billy Mays, only because I worked with him on a lot of programs. Billy Mays worked with Teleperformance Interactive, the company I work for. He was the spokesman for programs like the Awesome Auger, Oxiclean, Kaboom, Orange Glo, and many more. We aren't sure if we will cut out his voice on the current ads running. It depends on what the clients want to do.

Billy Mays grew up in McKees Rocks, Pa, but resided in Florida. The 50 year old was pronounced dead at 7:45 am Sunday morning. He was well known for shouting during infomercials. He claimed to be an avid user of the products he promoted. He has been divorced with a son and daughter. Billy Mays always insisted the products he promoted worked. "You don't stay in this business as long as I have unless the products work". He also faced a challenge with Vince Shlomi, a smart alecky spokesman for the Shamwow. His style was more knowing and sarcastic than Mays', prompting Slate.com to ponder whether he was a better pitchman more suitable to the times. Mays challenged Vince to a pitch off over two products.

A month later, a magazine tested them and found the Shamwow to be more effective. In my opinion, the commercial is bull. Vince says the shamwow absorbs water in an instance. It doesn't. It takes a least a few minutes. Will the consumers keep buying his products? Will the current ads on TV freak people out knowing he's dead? Yes, the marketers will keep running his ads. Billy May's son approved of an idea to have a "wear blue for Billy" day from someone on Twitter who suggested the idea.

People were suprised of his death because, besides his beer gut, he seemed healthy, but wasn't. He had heart disease and that's what took his life. Rumors surfaced that he had a concussion after hitting his head in a plane crash, but an autopsy revealed no head trauma.

Billy Mays and Anthony Sullivan are stars of the 300 billion industry known as Direct Response (the dept I work for). Over the past 10 years, they have gained revenue of 1 billion in sales. Last year their ads ran for 56,000 minutes on TV at a cost of 170 million according to Icon Media (a media agency I work with every day). Mays was going to promote Arm & Hammer. On April 15th, the Discovery channel will premier Pitchmen featuring Billy Mays. Billy Mays and his partner know how to stop someone on the street and get you to buy something for $20 and feel good about it. It's quite amazing since neither finished college. You don't need a college degree to sell something.

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