Billy Mays
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Billy Mays is a TV salesman, currently residing in Dunedin, Florida.
Mays has sold OxiClean, OrangeGlo, Kaboom, Bowl Blaster, the Hercules Hook and other home-oriented products on various TV infomercials.
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[edit] Biography
Born and raised in McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, he started out selling products at local malls before making it to Home Shopping Network and finally going to infomercials.
[edit] Advertising Style
Mays delivery style includes frequently-used gestures:
- Pointing and looking directly at the camera
- Extending his arms - palms up and with open hands - toward the camera, and then turning his forearms and wrists inward toward his chest (video link 1)
- Holding a product with two hands, Carol Merrill-style, and shaking it one or two times toward the camera (video link 2)
- A loose-fisted "one more thing" sign
- The "thumbs up" sign (at the end of his ads)
- Vigorously applying his products in a variety of different ways or to a variety of different surfaces in quick succession
- Gesticulating wildly and fluidly with his arms in ways common men find foreign.
- Rhyming nonsensically to pound the product into your head.
- Constantly saying, "the secret is..." but then going on to reveal no secrets at all.
[edit] See also
- Victor Kiam, "I liked it so much I bought the company"[citation needed]
[edit] References
- As seen on TV: Billy Mays hawks it all for a price Tampa Bay Business Journal
- As seen on TV, pitchman Billy Mays cleans up with shtick, Cincinnati Enquirer
- Billy Mays Mayhem "A page inspired by Mays animated sales tactics on his many daytime commercials and late night infomercials."
