Take It Back, Or Ron Popeil Will Cut You

Marc Ambinder reports that Tucker Bounds's brush-off of Obama's 30 minute broadcast last night, ("As anyone who has bought anything from an infomercial knows, the sales-job is always better than the product") has raised some hackles at the Electronic Retailers Association.

The ERA's Acting President and CEO Rick Petry has issued a press release rejoinder to Bounds defending the industry. He pointedly ads that, in fact, direct marketers' standards for truth in advertising are much higher than those in the political world:

To use a political agenda to indict an entire genre of advertising by portraying it in such a negative light is patently unfair. It would be like charging an entire industry and everyone associated with it, say politics for example, as being scurrilous. We at ERA will be the first to tell you that there are some who use this method of advertising inappropriately, which is why we have an independent self-regulation program, ERSP (http://www.narcpartners.org/ersp/index.aspx), administered by the National Advertising Review Council in partnership with the Council of Better Business Bureau. With this watchdog mechanism in place, claims have to be proven; a standard that politicians are not required to live up to. The fact is infomercials have been used by not only start-ups with unique products, but successful brands such as Kodak and Mercedes Benz, even the U.S. Navy.

Not to mention the NordicTrack.

(Also, we can't help but link this. Wow, that's terrific bass!)

-- Evie Stone

2:11 PM ET | 10-30-2008 | permalink

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