The 12 ‘Best’ Pitchmen In TV Commercial History

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The 12 ‘Best’ Pitchmen In TV Commercial History

People have been smooth-talking each other into buying junk since the beginning of time

Published 6 months ago in Wow

We’ve all had this experience at least once in our lives: lying around on the couch in the middle of the night, too lazy to get up and go to bed, and just flipping the channels until some sweaty guy in a too-tight polo shirt appears on the screen and starts peddling a gadget that nobody in the world could reasonably want or need.

People have been smooth-talking each other into buying junk ever since there was junk to sell, but with the invention of the TV, you could really make a name for yourself doing it. And some people certainly have. These are the 12 ‘best’ TV pitchmen in advertisement history. And yes, ‘best’ is in quotation marks, because I don’t think you can really qualify what these guys are doing as ‘good’.

1
Richard Simmons
Richard Simmons was a fitness guru best known for “Sweatin’ to the Oldies”, an aerobic workout tape set to 50s and 60s hits. Richard Simmons’ frenetic and frankly terrifying energy captured the attention of anybody who was within 30 feet of the TV when his commercials came on.

2
George Foreman
George Foreman is probably best known as the boxer who fought Muhammad Ali in The Rumble in the Jungle, but there are no doubt some people who only know him as the spokesperson for his successful line of small indoor grills. Believe it or not, George actually made more money selling grills than he ever did boxing!

3
Ron Popeil
Ron Popeil was the founder of Ronco, a company that sold kitchen gadgets invented by his father. He took to the TV to sell such ingenious devices as the Veg-o-matic– “It slices! It dices! It peels!” In the world of unsettling guys hawking their weird and only slightly useful inventions to late night channel surfers, he is a legend.

4
Jay Kordich
Jay Kordich was best known as “The Juiceman” or the “Father of Juicing”. He was a late night infomercial staple, where he preached the gospel of juice cleanses, fasting, making juice, and did I mention the guy liked juice? His standout feature had to be his eyebrows. Those are crazy.

5
Phil Swift
A more modern entry to the pitchman canon, Phil Swift is the loud-talking mastermind behind the FlexSeal commercials. With safety goggles and circular saws, you can catch him on TV cutting any number of things in half and then taping them back together. Whenever his commercials come on in a dentist’s office or wherever I unwillingly notice them, I can’t help but watch the whole thing.

6
Tony Little
Tony Little, “America’s Personal Trainer”, sported a baseball cap and insane ponytail in a series of famous (or infamous?) fitness infomercials. He was a classic fast-talking salesman, only in the body of a second-tier pro wrestler. You could always catch him on TV flinging his legs back and forth in an exercise machine.

7
Flo from Progressive
Okay, this one is probably controversial. I personally cannot stand Flo. But I also can’t escape her– and isn’t that the mark of a TV commercial great? Sure, I don’t think she holds a candle to some of the other legends on this list, but people in 30 years are still going to be seeing Flo when they close their eyes.

8
Matthew Lesko
Matthew Lesko would explode onto your screen around 3 AM to frantically spout a bunch of nonsense and then recommend that you buy his book which taught how to get free money from the government. Spoiler alert: He was a scam artist teaching people to defraud public assistance programs. Not that much of a surprise, considering he dressed as a Batman villain.

9
“Mikey”
Not quite a ‘pitchman’, per se, but anybody who grew up during the 70s knows that this kid deserves his laurels for that one Life cereal commercial. See, Mikey “hates everything” except for Life cereal. I’m not sure how many boxes of cereal Mikey sold, but I do know thanks to him the phrase “He likes it! Hey Mikey!” is burned into everyone over a certain age’s brain forever.

10
Mike Lindell
Mike Lindell is the spokesperson for MyPillow, a specialized pillow that he invented and designed. Mike is probably better known, though, for his, let’s say, checkered past and political affiliations. I won’t go into too many details here, but suffice it to say a comfortable pillow is not what I would expect this guy to have invented.

11
Vince Offer
The name Vince Offer might not immediately ring a bell, but I bet “The ShamWow Guy” does. His fast-talking yet cool demeanor while demonstrating the frankly unbelievable (and I mean that in the sense of, ‘you should not believe it’) capabilities of the ShamWow land him a spot in the TV Pitchman Hall of Fame. And that’s even without mentioning the Slap Chop.

12
Billy Mays
We had to leave the best for last. The first thing that jumps to your mind is OxiClean, but he sold over forty different products, including Orange Glo, Kaboom, and Zorbeez. Billy Mays was just a different breed. He could and did sell anything to anyone. He passed away in 2009, and his stage presence and incredible ubiquity will be sorely missed.