#BILLY MAYS STICKY PUTTY TV#

The pitchman-as-entertainer role is one with deep roots in American history and culture. “The secret is in the Internet connection!” Mays shouts in the ad for the ESPN website, with the same earnest delivery he’d used to explain the technology of the Samurai Shark knife sharpener and the Bay City Slider Station burger machine. They dubbed his ads with absurdist dialogue, created gangster-rap remixes of his voice and dressed themselves up to emulate his impossibly dark hair and beard - a signature style that made him resemble a bear that had fallen into a vat of Just For Men.Įventually, however, Mays cheekily exploited the phenomenon, starring in his own clever, self-parodying spots - one for a snowboard made by the hip DC Shoes brand and another for. It was an old-fashioned style that prompted wags on the Internet to poke good-natured fun at Mays with countless video parodies that served to exponentially increase his stature. It was a universe where cleanup was always a breeze, where it was important to call right now, and where $20 values seemed to always be included free. But in a broader advertising culture that regularly deploys irony and subtlety to ward off the whiff of cheesiness, Mays proved the enduring power of the hard sell.

#BILLY MAYS STICKY PUTTY TV#

Mays was not known so much as an innovator TV infomercials have been around for decades, and other small-screen pitchmen, like Ron “Ronco” Popeil, have become quasi-household names. I’ll always remember his booming voice - him saying, ‘Hi, Billy Mays here!’ He was the best friend a man could wish for. “I hate to say it, but the king is dead,” Sullivan said in a statement Sunday. In April, the Discovery Channel began airing “Pitchmen,” a reality TV show based on their exploits. He and his sometimes-collaborator, Anthony Sullivan, have racked up more than $1 billion in combined sales, according to Fortune magazine. Mays’ surprising death came as he was enjoying an unlikely degree of fame and fortune as a practitioner of “direct-response advertising,” the infomercial-style spots that drive a $150-billion industry.

Billy mays sticky putty