Ignore Montel Williams: Infomercials Masquerading as Talk Shows

Of all the obscene advertising and marketing scams I have seen in my life nothing beats the shameless and selfish stupidity of what Montel Williams is doing to make a buck now that he lost his TV talk show. All the expensive and unnecessary stuff he is selling through infomercials and a website are being touted under the rubric "living well." Americans that are stupid enough to buy what Williams is selling will never live as well as Williams will from making millions of dollars from gullible consumers.

The whole idea behind his new effort is that virtually anything can be sold if a twisted living well message is delivered to tired and depressed consumers watching infomercials in late night and early morning hours. Never mind that in these awful economic times consumers need to wisely manage their financial resources so that they can survive, and they need to resist impulse buying. Williams sure has a dynamite personality and great looks as well as a smooth delivery. He sure can sell stuff and keep a smiling face even as he claims that the junk he is selling will make your life healthier and better. Shame on him and his greed. He has sunk as low as any has-been, third-rate entertainer can go.

Here is one of the key products he is hustling. It is a food blender. He boldly claims that it can be the "Health Center" for your family. A food blender! Who are we kidding? Food blenders have been around a very long time. Most of us either have never seen the need for one or if we bought one or received it as a gift we probably hardly ever use it. I have nothing against food blenders. But to claim that you should buy one for $150 plus shipping and handling to create a Health Center in your home when you can go to a Target store or many other places and buy a great blender for a small fraction of that price is sheer nonsense.

Williams has the audacity to talk about childhood obesity to justify buying the blender to make healthy soups and smoothies, as if there aren't a host of things parents can do without spending any new money. Just buy healthier foods with lower calories and fat content, stop buying candy and other junk foods, and get your kids walking and exercising.

Everything that Williams sells will have an exorbitant price because he makes his money only from a cut of the sales made through his new efforts. Apparently there really are a lot of stupid, money-wasting consumers out there, because when I checked his website the blender was said to be out of stock.

Have a concern about high heating bills? Williams has the answer. He is a shill for the "Toasty Wrap." This is nothing more than a blanket with loose sleeves. I doubt whether there are very many people that do not already have sweaters, robes and blankets that they can and perhaps already use to keep warm while turning down their thermostat. But Williams sells his product for $20 plus shipping and handling. And you can get a second one by paying $8 for processing and handling. So for a total of $36 you can live well with two wraps. I find it interesting that neither the exact material used to make the wrap nor its exact size are given. As it turns out, if you do a Google search for "blanket with sleeves" you will find that there are countless places selling what appear to be exactly the kind of product. One such highly advertised product is call the Snuggie, and one person commented on a website that it belonged in the stupid products hall of fame. It is being sold for exactly the same price and deal as Williams is offering.

The company behind Williams' new effort has said that it is spending about $2.5 million a week for advertising time for the infomercial, with the expectation that it will sell about $5 million worth a week of the products Williams is promoting.

The Williams' infomercials are produced in a way that makes them seem more like an entertainment talk show with audience participation, so the deception issue is alive and well. Indeed, people have been enticed to get tickets for a "limited TV engagement" rather than for an infomercial.

There are a few things we know for sure. One is that celebrity sells and Williams will be living well because of his shameless snake-oil salesmanship. The other is that there apparently are huge numbers of Americans that will live less well because they will waste their money buying stuff that they really do not need or that they could buy cheaper from some other seller. But in the lonely hours when people watch infomercials they easily succumb, proving once again that suckers are born every second.

Of course, Williams' whole show business career pretty much has been based on appealing to the dumbest people in society. So his new living well with Montel venture is not really a surprise. My advice: As soon as you see Montel Williams on TV or some cable channel reach for your remote. I know that some of you will say that Williams has done some really good things, but that does not justify what he is doing now.