Infomercial Kings Pan Obama Ad

mark-impomeni

Mark Impomeni

Contributor
Posted:
10/30/08
Sen. Barack Obama may be a skilled politician, but he sure couldn't sell a Swivel Sweeper. That's according to two of the biggest names in the infomercial industry. The kings of late night and weekend TV sales reviewed Obama's 30-minute campaign ad, which aired last night on eight networks simultaneously, and found it seriously lacking.

"I don't see enough smiling. Doom and gloom totally," said Anthony Sullivan, the biggest and most successful infomercial host ever. "I feel depressed right now." Famed infomercial producer A.J. Khubani called the Obama ad a failed pitch for its intended product, Sen. Obama himself.
"Every infomercial lays out common problems, whether it's a flabby belly or acne, and then it gives a solution. In this case the solution is Obama.

We always spend much more time on the solution than the problem and he did the opposite."
The unprecedented ad buy did give Sen. Obama the opportunity to bring his message directly to millions of Americans. Instead, he used the time to highlight all that he sees as wrong with America. And he didn't spend enough time explaining in detail what he intended to do to change the country. There were loads of campaign promises, few backed up with specifics. Obama did come off as warm and sincere, but that is not enough to win votes. Lots of perfectly nice guys would make perfectly awful presidents. Last night, Sen. Obama failed to close the sale with viewers.