I would like to sing the praises of George Foreman’s double knockout grill. After much research, I decided to buy one at a local wholesaler. The thing is a miracle. In fact last night, my wife, who when asked about a frying pan has images of little goat-footed people on acid, actually cooked herself a chicken breast with minimal supervision. I am impressed.
Dana27
August 31, 2003, 8:45pm
2
I think George has certainly revolutionized cooking if not for the masses, then at least for college kids around the world. I only wish I had thought of it first.
Of course, George did not invent the machine, but it an amazing story nevertheless:
http://www.fortune.com/fortune/smallbusiness/marketing/articles/0,15114,453574,00.html
On the strength of his improbable comeback, Foreman got endorsement deals for Meineke, KFC, and Doritos, among others, but he wanted something bigger. His advisors put an idea in his head–why not put the George Foreman name on a product and keep more of the money for himself? Perhaps something connected to his well-known love for hamburgers?
Around the same time, Salton was introducing a product called the Lean, Mean, Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine. It made its debut, sans Foreman, at the housewares industry’s Gourmet Products Show in 1994. (Dreimann, a movie buff, named it after a football team called “the Mean Machine” in the 1974 Burt Reynolds movie The Longest Yard.) Developed and brought to Salton by an Asian manufacturer, the grill was one of about 100 products Salton was offering to retailers that year, reasonably sure that most of them would never make it to shelves but hoping that two or three might become hits. The grill did not appear likely to be one of them. At the show nobody looked at it twice. But unbeknownst to Salton, an industry legend named Mike Srednick was aware of George Foreman’s interest in finding a product to endorse. He saw the grill and, with Dreimann’s blessing, took a sample to show a “mystery customer.” Because the grill had gotten such little notice at the trade show, Dreimann waived all rights to it and put Srednick directly in touch with the manufacturer.
Srednick had connections to Foreman through an attorney named Sam Perlmutter, who had experience in the infomercial industry. Perlmutter got the grill in front of Foreman, but a few months later the champ hadn’t so much as turned it on. Perlmutter nudged him a little. Finally, Foreman’s wife cooked a hamburger on it, and she got him to give it a try. When Perlmutter checked back, Foreman had an answer: “I like it. I tried it, and it works. Let’s do it.” Perlmutter considered trying to market the grill on his own but quickly realized he was in over his head, so he went back to Salton. Dreimann, the Australian, wasn’t all that familiar with George Foreman, but he thought that having the heavyweight champ of the world behind his product couldn’t hurt.
[snip]
Under the original Foreman agreement, Salton would manufacture, market, and distribute the grill, and after expenses the profits would be split as follows: 40% to Salton, 45% to Foreman, and 15% split between Srednick and Perlmutter. The deal was almost unheard-of in that Foreman received a percentage of the profits down the road but nothing up-front. Typically, endorsement deals are structured the other way around: The athletes get a single payment in advance for a certain number of days of work, a certain number of public appearances, and a set amount of advertising. But Dreimann was willing to give up 60% because the risk was minimal–Foreman wouldn’t get a dime until Salton’s expenses were covered, and expectations were fairly low. (A statement made by an analyst at the time showed equal enthusiasm for the I Love Bagels bagel maker.) Perlmutter felt the same. “If I sold 150,000 units, I would be dancing up and down Hollywood Boulevard,” he says now. They were in for a surprise.
Indeed, the thing was a bigger hit than they could imagine, Foreman later remarked that he made more money now with me grilling machine than he ever made in Boxing, His payback was bigger when the company, realizing the unheard deal was not very good for them, made a deal to buy foreman out, however a gentleman’s agreement remains and the company still offers decision control to Foreman on what products his name will endorse, and he remains a spokesman.