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Vince Offer

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Vince Offer
Offer in 2009
Born
Offer Shlomi[1][2]

(1964-04-25) April 25, 1964 (age 60)
Haifa, Israel
Other namesVince Shlomi, ShamWow Guy
CitizenshipAmerican, Israeli
OccupationSalesman
Known forInfomercial Acting

Offer "Vince" Shlomi (born April 25, 1964), also known as Vince Offer, or the "ShamWow!" Guy, is an infomercial pitchman, writer, director, and comedian.[1][2][3] Shlomi's first major work was the 1999 comedy film The Underground Comedy Movie. In the late 2000s, Shlomi began appearing on television commercials for the products "ShamWow!", a super-absorbent towel, the "Slap Chop", a kitchen utensil, and a lint roller called the "Schticky".

Career

Film

In 1999, Shlomi directed and appeared in The Underground Comedy Movie, which was met with extremely negative reviews. DVDs of the film were marketed via television infomercial. The film also led to several lawsuits. Although the film was released and screened in 1999, Shlomi was bankrupt by 2002 and home video distribution plans were shelved. Shlomi, who had previously been a successful vegetable chopper salesman and businessman, resumed selling vegetable choppers at swap meets to support himself and raise money to complete his film project. Within a few months, he had earned enough to resume production, and the movie was finally completed, released, and marketed entirely on late-night infomercials that Shlomi paid for with his earnings from the swap meet vegetable chopper sales. In 2011, he appeared as himself in the Adam Sandler film Jack and Jill where the title character Jill referred to him as "the ShamWow guy". He is currently working on the upcoming film InAPPropriate Comedy, which he directed and wrote. He also plays a character called Peeping Tom.[4]

Infomercial marketing

Shlomi, who funded The Underground Comedy Movie with his own money, had trouble selling it. Inspired by the success of Girls Gone Wild marketing, he decided to put the trailer on an infomercial, and sold 50,000 copies via direct order.[5] In 2010, he advertised Eminem's Recovery album.[6]

ShamWow!

The success of The Underground Comedy Movie infomercial suggested to Shlomi that he should sell something more mainstream. Drawing upon his experience working in flea markets, he decided in 2006 to market a cleaning product that he saw there, an absorbent towel that he called the "ShamWow!".[5][7] The title of the product derives from the French pronunciation of the chamois.

The advertisement, filmed in the summer of 2007 with a budget of $20,000, became a popular hit.[5] Slate.com's Seth Stevenson praised Shlomi for his "impressive and subtle mastery of the pitchman's art" (with lines such as "you know the Germans always make good stuff"), and wondered if Shlomi's "abrasive manner might also mark a unique, new strategy in the annals of pitchdom." Stevenson compared Shlomi to earlier, "more upbeat" television pitchmen like the late Billy Mays and the Home Shopping Network hosts and concluded that Shlomi's "smooth-talking condescension" was more suited to the present "zeitgeist" than the "earnest fervor" of spokesmen like Mays and Ron Popeil.[7]

Consumer Reports reported that the infomercial for "ShamWow!" initially featured Shlomi claiming that the product held "20 times its weight in liquid". Later, the infomercial was changed to Shlomi claiming the "ShamWow!" held "12 times its weight in liquid", then again to "10 times". Consumer Reports did its own test on the product and found that it does indeed hold 10 times its weight in liquid but no more.[8]

Shlomi says that he has sold millions of the towels.[5] Notwithstanding his infomercial success, Shlomi says that "this is not my career" and that he considers himself to be in the film business.[5]

Pitchman Billy Mays had been promoting a similar product called Zorbeez two years prior to Vinces Shlomi's "ShamWow!" product. Mays noted that the "ShamWow!" commercials use many of the same product demonstrations as the earlier-produced Zorbeez commercial. In February 2009 while on the Adam Carolla radio show, Billy Mays publicly challenged Shlomi to a "pitch off" between their respective absorbent towel products.[9] Popular Mechanics tested the absorbency of the two towel products and declared "ShamWow!" was the more effective of the two, but noted "If you have reusable cloth rags (and a roll of paper towels for backup), then neither product is necessary."[10]

During the episode, it was suggested that the Popular Mechanics tester did not use the Zorbeez correctly.[11]

Following the popularity of the commercial, TMZ in 2009 posted a remix of the commercial on their site.[12]

Slap Chop

Vince pitching the Slap Chop in August 2008.

In December 2008, Shlomi, who had previously sold kitchen utensils at swap meets,[7] appeared in another kitchen-gadget infomercial, advertising the Slap Chop and the Graty. The Slap Chop is a hand-held chopping device with internal blades; to operate it, the user places it over a food item and slaps down the button on the top. The Graty is a cheese grater operated by placing the cheese inside and then turning the outside housing of the utensil which causes the cheese to be grated.[13] Both of these devices are offered in several colors. Shlomi's aggressiveness and use of double entendres like "you're gonna love my nuts" in the English version and "mira mi huevo" and "excitante" in a version he made for Spanish speaking audiences have earned him notoriety,[14] and, according to an Adweek blog, helped make Shlomi "the man who could beat Billy Mays at his own game."

Billy Mays had been promoting a similar product set which included the Quick Chop utensil and the Quick Grater utensil prior to Vince Shlomi's Slap Chop/Graty product set. Mays again noted that the Slap Chop commercials use many of the same demos as the earlier-produced Quick Chop commercial. Mays said in the same Adam Carolla radio show interview in February 2009 that Shlomi stole not only the Zorbeez product idea, but also the Quick Chop idea.[9]

In April 2009, DJ Steve Porter posted an electro-themed "Slap Chop Rap" Auto Tune remix which grew a cult following during July 2009.[15] The Schticky commercial was co-written by the well know comedian Dante

Schticky

In 2012 Shlomi returned to television selling the "Schticky", a reusable lint roller that comes in three sizes: little Schticky, Schticky, and big Schticky. As in the Slap Chop advertisement, there are several instances where innuendo comes into play. For example, Shlomi uses the term "Schticky" as a euphemism for male anatomy and purposely uses the term "pussy" to describe a shedding cat (which can be used to refer to cats but is often used to refer to the vagina).

The commercial makes many references to his other two commercials for the ShamWow and the Slap Chop, with Shlomi saying many of his catchphrases. He also pokes fun at his 2009 arrest by posing for a fake mugshot.[16][17][18]

Arrest

On February 7, 2009, Shlomi was arrested in Miami Beach, Florida on a charge of felony battery after an altercation with a 26-year-old prostitute. Shlomi contended that he struck the prostitute when she "bit his tongue and would not let go." Prosecutors later declined to file formal charges against either individual.[2][19][20]

References

  1. ^ a b Rovellurl, Darren (January 27, 2009). "First Interview with Vince from ShamWow!". CNBC.
  2. ^ a b c "ShamWow Guy In Slap, Chop Bust". The Smoking Gun. 2009-03-27.
  3. ^ Brian, Greg (January 22, 2009). "Who is Vince Offer? He's Changing the Style of Pitchman for Infomercials". Yahoo! Voices. Retrieved March 7, 2012.
  4. ^ InAPPropriate Comedy (2012) at IMDb
  5. ^ a b c d e Rovell, Darren (2009-01-27). "First Interview with Vince from ShamWow!". CNBC.com. Retrieved 2009-02-04.
  6. ^ Griner, David (June 17, 2010). "Eminem taps ShamWow guy for infomercial". Adweek. Retrieved March 8, 2012.
  7. ^ a b c Stevenson, Seth (2008-05-13). "Salesjerk; Meet the next great TV pitchman". Slate. The Slate Group. Retrieved 2008-12-15.
  8. ^ "Consumer Reports: ShamWow fails to wow in Consumer Reports tests". Consumer Reports. May 1, 2009.
  9. ^ a b The Daily Tube: Billy Mays 'ShamPows' ShamWow Guy[dead link]
  10. ^ Sawyers, Harry (March 29, 2009). "Shamwow vs. Zorbeez: Which works Better? As Seen On TV Lab Test". Retrieved March 7, 2009.
  11. ^ Pitchmen, episode: "Revenge of the Pitchmen" (2009-07-01).
  12. ^ TMZ Staff (October 22, 2009). "ShamWow Guy -- Sir Remix-a-Lot". TMZ. Retrieved March 8, 2012.
  13. ^ Hoffman, Ken (2009-01-16). "Hoffman: A vote for Jay, against Conan". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved 2009-02-04. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  14. ^ Griner, David (2009-01-19). "How Vince Became an Infomercial Superstar". adfreak.com, an online publication of Adweek. Retrieved 2009-02-17. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  15. ^ Edwards, Jim (July 6, 2009). "Slap Chop's Vince Shlomi Spawns Remix Cult on YouTube". CBS News. Retrieved March 8, 2012.
  16. ^ Official Schticky website
  17. ^ "The Schticky by Vince Offer". advertfix.com. January 10, 2012. Retrieved March 7, 2012.
  18. ^ Nudd, Tim (January 9, 2012). "Infomercial Pariah Vince Offer Returns With Brand-New Spot Pokes fun at 2009 arrest in Schticky pitch". Adweek. Retrieved March 8, 2012.
  19. ^ "ShamWow Guy arrested after hotel fight with woman: Smoking Gun". Ottawa Citizen. 2009-03-27. Retrieved 2009-03-28. [dead link]
  20. ^ Chalupa, Andrea (March 27, 2009). "ShamWow Guy the Movie: Noooo!". The Huffington Post. Retrieved March 8, 2012.
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