Weekly Round-Up

1. Thigh Train. Starring: Jennifer Nicole Lee. Marketer: Telebrands. Pitch: "Get thighs so sculpted, it's insane." Comments: I'm not sure if this is meant to complement an infomercial play or if this is a rare foray by Telebrands into high price point short form. The latter would be more interesting as Tristar has had that particular 'genre' to itself until now. [ss]
 
2. Kitchen Mittles. Marketer: Tristar. Pitch: "The perfect oven mitt with the towel in the middle." Comments: An understandable 'fast fail.' (Link goes to spot.) [ss]
 
3. Micro Knife. Pitch: "The ultra-light pocket knife that folds completely flat." Comments: I'm not a big fan of gimmicky items like this one because they target a segment of a segment and don't solve a real problem. Also, it remains to be seen if knives can even be sold on DRTV. The Rocky Mountain Knife (No. 10 in this Weekly Round-Up) will be an interesting case study. As for the commercial, I didn't get the comparison to a Swiss Army knife (this is no Wallet Ninja), and I thought the Crocodile Dundee joke at the end fell flat. [ss]
 
4. Simoniz Paint Chip Repair. Pitch: "Easily fix chipped paint in minutes." Comments: Fast Brite gave the industry the idea that selling a solution to a specific problem area on a car was a viable DR strategy. However, since Fast Brite there hasn't been another hit like it. One is an outlier ... [ss]
 
5. 1 Touch Light Transformer. Marketer: Tristar. Pitch: "Just one simple touch on any part of your lamp and the light turns out." Comments: This concept was tried by IdeaVillage in 2008 under the name Magic Touch (HT: AF). The commercial starred Joe Fowler. In any case, it appears to be another 'fast fail' from Tristar. [ss]
 
6. EZ Walk. Pitch: "Insoles just for sandals." Comments: No insole for shoes has ever been successful on DRTV, so making the market smaller and seasonal is a really bad idea. [ss]
 
7. Thera-X. Marketer: Telebrands. Pitch: "Roll it on and the pain is gone." Comments: A 'fast fail' ... with the same slogan as an IdeaVillage 'fast fail' from 2012 (see No. 5 in this Weekly Round-Up). [ss]
 
8. Living Bubble. Pitch: "The color-changing fishbowl you hang on your wall." Comments: Cool idea, but there's only room for one and Hampton is determined to be that one ... even if they have to keep changing the product's name! [ss]
 
9. Slim Brites. Marketer: Spark Innovators. Pitch: "The flexible, super-bright LED lighting system." Comments: This is a neat item, and it would have a decent shot at success -- if lighting weren't a completely dead, Siren category right now. [ss]
 
10. Vegie Fresh. Pitch: Keep "fruits and vegetables fresher for up to 50% longer." Comments: This pitch only worked once (for Debbie Meyer Green Bags in 2008) and never worked again. [ss]