Warner Home Video, MGM Home Entertainment, and various Time Warner music compilations are mainstays of entertainment marketing through infomercials, each capitalizing on their special brand of celebrity power and familiar movie and music production values. Most significantly, the critical call to action in the big-name infomercials usually takes a different tone. There is inevitably some kind of response mechanism, asking viewers to call a toll-free number to get more information or the name of a nearby dealer. Other brand-name DRTV campaigns have been mounted by political campaigns and real estate companies. Local residential real estate companies have packaged half-hour weekend morning programs to showcase their properties for an extra fee to the homeseller, providing a video alternative to newspaper classified ads.
Infomercials come from a different part of the mercantile world.
Their products are not just knock-offs and the kinds of remaindered items you'd find at a flea market. Nearly 40 percent of purchasers cited the lack of availability elsewhere as the most compelling reason to purchase from infomercials. The most memorable instance occurred several years ago, when juice extractors were an infomercial workhorse. The widely disparaged Thighmaster exercise device is another gizmo that was popularized via infomercials. Its promoters saw a bigger sales opportunity for a relatively low-priced version through retail stores.