The Times reports on the attempted resurgence of Ronco, the company best known for its successful infomercials staring founder Ron Popeil. While the Ronco Acquisition Corporation tries to figure out how to kickstart the brand, the Times offhandedly remembers Popeil’s final coup:
It is part of an effort to rejuvenate Ronco, the troubled housewares company that Mr. Popeil sold in 2005 for about $56 million. A group of investors bought it, but promptly started fighting among themselves. Two years later, with a former chief executive suing over mismanagement, the company declared bankruptcy.
The world’s greatest salesman strikes again.
But Wait! There’s More! (Again) [NYTimes.com]
Previously • Useless egg cracking device
Related • But Wait! There’s More! (Bob Edwards) [NPR]
i believe that ron popeil actually invented the infomercial with Mr. Microphone.
just an fyi.
…If Ronco wants to jump start, they’ve got to come up with something for the Internet what Mr. Microphone was to drive-by shootings.
I’ve always had a desire to throttle Mr. Popeil’s windpipe. He took many timeslots away from M*A*S*H and Hogan’s Heroes, and for that I will never forgive him.
I knew poor people in the ghetto that loved the pocket fisherman so they could fish from the local river without a license and out of season.
How’s that saying go…give a man a fish…?
What they need to perfect is a delivery mechanism that seamlessly transfers each item from the shop shelf to the back of the kitchen cupboard, thus cutting out the brief moment of fumbling with it until realising that it’s useless.