# Infomercials in other nations? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 17, 2004, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infomercials-in-other-nations/264788 "2004-09-17T03:12:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![rippingtons\_fan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rippingtons_fan/32/11767_2.png) [@rippingtons\_fan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rippingtons_fan)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2004, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infomercials-in-other-nations/264788/1 "2004-09-17T03:12:17Z")
Do any nations besides the USA broadcast those half-hour television commercials (infomercials) to their tv audiences? Are the people of other lands subjected to used car commercials (or their equivalents) shown over and over and over again? Do they have their own equivalents of the Pocket Fisherman and Slim Whitman’s Greatest Hits? ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2004, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infomercials-in-other-nations/264788/2 "2004-09-18T10:42:45Z")
We do in the UK but only on satellite and cable and not on the mainstream terrestrial stations. Ordinary entertainment channels are allowed to broadcast this type of programme for three hours a day but on so called shopping channels there is no such restriction. We have dozens of these shopping channels . Some such as QVC do sell a variety of goods and are broadcast live . Others just show the recorded infomercials all day and night. Most of these seem to come from the US with Instant Abbs the prime favourite followed by that inflatable bed , products to catch more fish or play better golf and , of course ,Slim Whitman’s Greatest Hits. I don’t know how successful they are but another one seems to open every month so somebody must be buying these goods. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2004, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infomercials-in-other-nations/264788/3 "2004-09-18T10:48:38Z")
Australia’s Network Ten (probably the most downmarket of our three commercial networks) has been broadcasting these things in the very small hours of the morning for a few years now. Whilst some are entirely Australian content, most are American in origin with an Australian voice-over dubbed onto it, and also local contact details. All of them are sleazy. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2004, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infomercials-in-other-nations/264788/4 "2004-09-18T11:22:14Z")
I’ve seen American infomercials in Mexico dubbed into Spanish, usually in the wee hours of the morning on the lesser cable channels. ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2004, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infomercials-in-other-nations/264788/5 "2004-09-18T14:52:32Z")
> [@Balthisar](#): > > I’ve seen American infomercials in Mexico dubbed into Spanish, usually in the wee hours of the morning on the lesser cable channels. The same here, but we get them on open TV too, usually in the 10:00 to 12:00 hours; luckly I work at that time so I can spare myself of the suffering. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![seosamh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@seosamh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seosamh)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2004, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infomercials-in-other-nations/264788/6 "2004-09-18T15:37:10Z")
Advertising magazines, like one called “Jim’s Inn” with Jimmy Hanley, used to be shown in the UK. They were banned by the Independent Television Authority at the end of 1963. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2004, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infomercials-in-other-nations/264788/7 "2004-09-19T19:16:57Z")
We get American and Mexican infomercials on cable. Mexican infomercials s are particularly bad. ---
**Author:** ![Jake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2004, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infomercials-in-other-nations/264788/8 "2004-09-19T21:22:57Z")
> [@Mighty\_Girl](#): > > We get American and Mexican infomercials on cable. Mexican infomercials s are particularly bad. Mighty, forgive my ignorance but where is “Stepford” ? ---
**Author:** ![Monkeypants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@Monkeypants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monkeypants)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2004, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infomercials-in-other-nations/264788/9 "2004-09-19T21:28:52Z")
In 1992 I spent a few weeks living with a French family in Nice, and I told them about these mysterious new things on American TV that are made to look like shows but really are ads. They had never heard of such a thing. Now, they are all over French television. When some friends from France stayed with me during Y2K, they saw an infomercial and laughed hysterically, as it was apparently worse than any they had on tv at home. For the record, it was the infamous Nad’s cream one. After all the shilling for the cream, a guy comes out and says if you order now you’ll also get the instructional videotape, which they showed on the screen. I sweared they laughed so much, you’d think Jerry Lewis was appearing on the Bebete show. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2004, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infomercials-in-other-nations/264788/10 "2004-09-19T23:45:50Z")
> [@Jake](#): > > Mighty, forgive my ignorance but where is “Stepford” ? In [Movie Land](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073747/). But I am not a robot (yet), I am a breathing, living person in the Dominican Republic. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2004, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infomercials-in-other-nations/264788/11 "2004-09-20T00:57:34Z")
I once saw an English-language infomercial in Italy one night, about 10 years or so ago. It was for a Bedazzler-type product, and it had elements of the old medicine show in its writing. Suffice it to say I was a little drunk and a little tired, so it was probably funnier than it really is. Robin ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2004, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infomercials-in-other-nations/264788/12 "2004-09-20T03:35:35Z")
> [@Mighty\_Girl](#): > > We get American and Mexican infomercials on cable. Mexican infomercials s are particularly bad. Do you get the one about the pushup pantyhose? Yep, here I get American AND Mexican and some that I think are “American Hispanic” i.e. for the Miami or L.A. markets, and a few that I think are home-made, literally (made in someone’s house). The Latin infomercials tend to go heavily for snake-oil health products (with a certain concentration on men’s, erm, “vigor”), psychic lines, English-language courses including the paradoxically-named “Aprenda Inglés Hablando en Español”, Mexican DVD collections (“58 Westerns and 67 Sex Comedies! Plus this free leather seat-cover!!”), and yes, household products, these usually in dubs of the USA spots. ---
**Author:** ![MelCthefirst](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eada6e/32.png) [@MelCthefirst](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MelCthefirst)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2004, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infomercials-in-other-nations/264788/13 "2004-09-20T03:44:47Z")
Yeah, we have them in NZ, in the wee small hours and in the afternoon on the least successful free to air channel. Ours are nearly all American, I have noticed ab-burners, Chuck Norris and wife selling total home gyms, Victoria Principal selling face stuff amongst others. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2004, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infomercials-in-other-nations/264788/14 "2004-09-20T06:03:57Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > Do you get the one about the pushup pantyhose? Do I? :mad: But the worse, by far, were some that appeared on Mexican stations that showed some Asians (presumably from Korea), and that were dubbed in Spanish, advertising some cream to make your boobs bigger. The sound is completely out of whack, the infomercial is ridiculous, and the product it advertises is clearly a scam. My (least) favorite? The [book](http://www.eskiny.com/default.asp?sOrigen=Kilitos) about "loosing 10 kgs in 25 days, without diet, medication or exercise ". Yeah, right. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2004, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infomercials-in-other-nations/264788/15 "2004-09-20T13:00:52Z")
Japan has a lot of them, but they’re mostly American ads with Japanese voice-overs. Exercise equipment, diet pills/drinks and those “electrocute yourself skinny!” devices seem to be popular.