Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like every other commercial on TV now is for some piece of exercise equipment. Bowflex, 6 Second Abs, the Ab Lounge, the Ab Scissor. Are we getting back into the fitness craze of the early 80’s, or is it just the channels I happen to be watching?
Sounds to me like somebody’s been watching those neglected channels in the upper reaches of his/her program guide.
Seriously, with the explosion of available channels from cable and satellite (I have about 200 available via Dish Network), there has got to be a lot of commercial inventory available. Big time companies won’t waste their time or marketing capital on pissant little niche channels, so the rates become cheap enough for smaller companies to mount saturation campaigns for their products, most of which don’t have retail distribution channels available to them.
So, do you really think a 50-year-old grandmother could look that hot just by working out on a Bowflex?
I read somewhere that the ads selling stuff directly are sometimes broadcast for free by the TV station in exchange for a share of the revenues. So a station might choose to broadcast those ads more frequently, depending on their profitability.
Not really, as I only have 100 channels.
If that woman is really 50, I’ll eat my mouse pad.
That’s a business plan I’d never heard of before. Interesting.
Watch MTV: they’re all ringtone commercials instead.
For the majority of 50-year-old grandmothers, no. But if there’s just one, the makers of commercials will find her.
I’ve noticed that Geico has started doing spoof exercise equipment ads; I saw one featuring that long-haired guy with the “Gazelle” (you stand on it and it swings your legs back and forth in an exaggerated manner).
Think “right end of the bell curve”.
Hee! I came into this thread just to see if anyone was going to mention Tony Little (THE MOST EXCITED MAN IN AMERICA!!! (He scares me, mommy!)) and the MegaGazellicizer…
I work as a part of the infomercial industry. Exercise machines are on a lot during the first part of the year (particularly the first three months) because they’re a popular time. Toward the end of the year, you’ll start to see more infomercials for products that are good gifts.
Yes, we sell some of those exercise programs. They are very popular. Infomercials are a good format for these sorts of things.
Yeah, that’s him! I couldn’t think of his name; I’ve never been able to watch one of his infomercials all the way through.
"YOU CAN DO IIIIIIT!!!
She is 50, I’ve seen her in fitness magazines before. (danged if I can remember her name tho’, isn’t it something like “Maryjo”?) But she doesn’t use the Bowflex, she uses free weights and it’s also obvious she has a great natural figure and was probably amazing when she was younger.
I would like to eat her mouse pad, IF you know what I mean (and I think you do).
Her name is Donna McClure, and she claims that Bowflex is indeed part of her fitness regimen.