Ziploc Flexware

Housewares

Dow Brands wanted to launch a new line of food storage containers. Their agency already had created an image spot. Our assignment was to do a high quality spot that would create immediate TV sales.

We designed a spot that not only did that, but also protected the Dow brand name with high production values and supported the image commercial by using the image spot’s “pop-up” animation (Interesting note: the :06 animation cost more to produce than our complete :120 and :60 together).

I believe we did a great job of demonstration the product and dramatizing the space-saving benefit. The spot was shot on film for about $80,000. In the end, Dow actually liked our spot better than the image spot.

Jenny Craig

Weight Loss

If there's one area we've been extremely successful in, it's weight loss.

Whether it's been for Jenny Craig, Gloria Marshall Figure Salons, Pritikin, or "The Carbohydrate Addict's Diet", we've done innumerable TV spots and infomercials, as well as print, radio and support. Jim McNamara spent 12 years creating the ads that built Jenny Craig into a weight loss icon with sales in excess of $500 million a year. We are specialists in coaxing natural performances from non-actor testimonials. We've built dozens of campaigns around celebrity endorsers like Lloyd Bridges, Robert Wagner, Milton Berle and Regis Philbin. Our spots build image, but also make the phone ring.

MindPower

Self Improvement

People walking barefoot over hot coals. Skiers training without setting foot in the snow. Patients undergoing surgery without anesthetic.

These are just a few of the scenes that we put into our MindPower infomercial, a show that invited viewers to try an audiotape self improvement program. This was one of the pioneering paid programs of the early 90s, making a formerly complex and esoteric subject accessible to the mass audience. MindPower grossed over $65 million throughout its 4 year run.

ThighMaster

Exercise

When we were asked to do this commercial, we were told to make it a hard-selling gadget spot, the kind with the deep Announcer voice. And we were told to use Suzanne Somers as a :10 testimonial clip. We didn’t see it that way. 

We convinced the client that it would be much better to use Suzanne as a celebrity spokesperson (Note: We’ve had a lot of success for Jenny Craig and other clients using spokespeople.) We also persuaded the client that the tacky and clichéd “problem-solution” opening was not necessary, that this commercial deserved to be different. 

We found a wonderful positioning and articulated it in probably the best copy line I’ve ever written: “Some folks were born with great legs. The rest of us have to work at it.” 

The result was a marketing and cultural phenomenon, and one of the highest-selling DRTV spots in history.

BodySlide

Exercise

BodySlide was just one of many fitness products we've successfully introduced to the marketplace. Other notable hits in our career include the million-seller EZ-Krunch ab machine, and a Pritikin program that cost over $35,000.

BodySlide was a beautiful and relatively high budget DRTV spot. It cost about $80,000 commercial and was shot on film to launch a follow-up product to ThighMaster.

Once again, we named the product, and helped to choose Cheryl Ladd as the celebrity, as well as providing creative. We wanted and achieved a hip feel to the spot, and wanted a lot of opportunity to show the product in action as well as explain the benefits.

BET  Dreams

Psychic

Dorf Goes Fishing

Entertainment

Some people say it’s easy to cut a commercial for a videotape offer. They forget that most video spots fail. But they do remember the incredible success of "Dorf".

Our commercial for Tim Conway's short-statured "Dorf" character was named one of the best spots of the 1995. Since then, we've created spots for Bob Newhart, Harvey Korman, Bob Hope and Dean Martin's Celebrity Roasts. In total, our work has sold over 1 million entertainment videos.

Toastmaster

Housewares

Toastmaster faced a dilemma. They wanted to harness the power of DRTV to launch a new kind of indoor grill, but they didn't want to tarnish their brand with the usual, tacky infomercial.

We came up with a unique kitchen show format which would feature Ricardo Montalban as well as the necessary kitchen demos. The result was a new product introduction that wouldn't have been possible through traditional retail strategies--immediate sales as well as a retail introduction.

Second Paycheck

Business Opportunity

The full title was one of the best (and longest) concept lines we've ever written: "How to Get a 2nd Paycheck...Without Getting a 2nd Job." It appealed to that person who has a home business idea, a recipe or invention, that he's sure can make him money. It turned out that there are an awful lot of folks like that in America. 2nd Paycheck grossed over $50 million in sales.

2nd Paycheck was a fast moving, totally convincing show build around a seminar and live audience. It opened with one of the greatest "hooks" ever used in a show: the Host entered, handed out a fistful of $20 bills, then promised to hand out another fistful of $100 bills as soon as his message was through. Very few people could leave their TV set after an offer like that. When 2nd Paycheck aired, it often sold over 10 times as much as its airtime cost, which was something of a record, and aired for 4 years.