Despite the countless amount of parodies, infomercials really work.
Here is what infomercials (a.k.a. direct response television advertising) are all about. Direct response television advertising runs the same length of time as a typical television program: 30 minutes to 1 hour. Often times, the commercial is looped in order to cover the length of the entire time slot. Direct response television is normally shown during off-peak hours: from 2:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. Infomercials are a lucrative business and are currently enjoying a whopping $91 billion dollars a year in sales (Source: MSNBC).
Despite all the success, direct response television advertising have been criticized for their infomercials product submissions. The media often is critical of the questionable products that are often picked up to be made into infomercials. That is why the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has started out cracking down on ads with deceptive weight loss claims.
What is the future of infomercials? With the FTC starting up some regulatory measures, perhaps the future of infomercials will bring more credibility into the world of infomercials. With set standards, the quality of the actual product will increase.
