December 17, 2015

Weekly Round-Up

  1. Crank Chop. Starring: Vince Offer. Producer: The Schwartz Group. Pitch: "Chop all your food in a matter of seconds." Comments: An apparent 'fast fail.' In DR, the third time (see Roto Chop vs. Zip Chopper) is seldom the charm ... even if you're Vince Offer ... and especially if your price is twice as high as the two previous attempts. This was definitely the best creative of the three, though. Vince has a way with demos, and his jokes are still funny. [ss]
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  3. CeraPan Perfect Grip. Pitch: "The pan reinvented." Comments: This is the Dyson advertising method applied to cookware. However, that ''better engineering' pitch doesn't work nearly as well for something so simple. Although very well produced, the commercial ends up seeming like much ado about nothing new. [ss]
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  5. Clever Cutter. Marketer: Lenfest/Allstar. Producer: Concepts TV. Pitch: "Quickly chops your favorite foods in seconds." Comments: This is a second attempt with a new commercial. The first attempt was in September of 2011. My comments are much the same. Great category, but slicers and choppers are always hit or miss -- and it was a miss last time. [ss]
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  7. Hot Doglicious. Pitch: "Cooks the hot dog and steams the bun all in one." Comments: I wouldn't say hot dogs have been given a fair shot on DRTV -- the only two products I could find were Curl-A-Dog and the bizarre Happy Hot Dog Man -- but I don't like the odds. Hot dogs are one of the easiest foods to make, leaving little room for improvement. [ss]
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  9. Mac Magic Pasta Pot. Pitch: "The only pasta pot with built-in strainer and handy mixer lid." Comments: Like hot dogs, mac & cheese is another food that is easy to make, leaving little room for improvement. I said the same thing about ramen noodles, though, and then Rapid Ramen happened. (No word on whether Rapid Mac was also successful.) Anyway, this pot makes other pasta dishes besides mac and cheese, and it also has an Old Gold element (pasta pots were the original multi-way duel back in 2002-2003), so maybe this one will break through. [ss]
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  11. Handee Bra. Pitch: "The bra with security features to put your mind at ease." Comments: Believe it or not, something like this has been tried before (see Secret Keeper). Other than that, I got nuthin'! [ss]
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  13. ShinJu Blade. Pitch: "The ceramic knife that's guaranteed to stay sharp." Comments: It's probably too soon to bring back Yoshi Blade, which was on the charts in 2011 -- especially without a new twist. [ss]
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  15. Star Shower Motion. Marketer: Telebrands. Pitch: "Now America's best-selling home laser lights have all new shooting-star action." Comments: Based on the timing, I'm guessing this is an attempt to gauge demand for next year. With Star Shower blowing out everywhere (they're so in demand people are stealing them), it's going to be hard to get a clean read. [ss]