The Birth of The Infomercial
Working with his partner Barry Becher, Valenti developed many of the best known catch phrases and product demonstrations, as well as the standard format of the long-form (two minute, 90 second) advertisement. In contrast to traditional short-form or "brand" advertising, such as the 30-second or 60-second spot, Valenti's long-form advertisements were the pre-cursors of the full half-hour television program length (half-hour) infomercials now commonly used to sell a variety of products and services on television. The intent of this new format was to elevate a particular product to the role of protagonist, showing the product benefits and a variety of uses through attention grabbing demonstrations, hopefully leading to direct sales of the product. Such products are often only available through consumer direct orders and can not be purchased in stores. Ironically, this "direct response" long form commercial format, intended to primarily sell products directly to consumers, created at the same time one of the most recognizable, memorable, and long lasting "brands" in advertising history: Ginsu Knives.
The first such product marketed by Valenti to achieve multi-million dollar sales was also the first product he and Becher ever marketed: The Miracle Painter ("Why is this man painting his ceiling in a tuxedo?") It was soon followed by the Miracle Duster and Miracle Slicer. Easily the best known of Valenti's products was (and still is) the Ginsu Knife. The most profitable was Armourcote Cookware, with sales exceeding $80 million.
Read more about this topic: Ed Valenti
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