| Vince Offer | |
|---|---|
| Born | Offer Shlomi[1][2] April 25, 1964 Haifa, Israel |
| Citizenship | American, Israeli |
| Known for | Infomercial salesman |
Offer "Vince" Shlomi (born April 25, 1964), known as Vince Offer, the ShamWow! Guy, or Headset Vince, is an infomercial pitchman, writer, director, and comedian[1][2]. Offer's first major work was the 1999 comedy film The Underground Comedy Movie. In the late 2000s, Offer began appearing on television commercials for the products ShamWow!, a super-absorbent towel, and the Slap Chop, a kitchen utensil.
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In 1999, Vince Offer wrote, directed and appeared in The Underground Comedy Movie, which was met with less-than-favorable reviews. DVDs of the film were marketed via television infomercial. The film also led to several lawsuits.
Offer, who funded The Underground Comedy Movie with his own money, had trouble selling it. Inspired by the success of Girls Gone Wild marketing, he decided to put the trailer on an infomercial, and sold 50,000 copies via direct order.[3]
====hoookerThe success of The Underground Comedy Movie infomercial suggested to Offer that he should sell something more mainstream. Drawing upon his experience working in flea markets, he decided in 2006 to market a cleaning product that he saw there, an absorbent towel that he called the ShamWow!.[3][4] The title of the product derives from the French pronunciation of the chamois.
The advertisement, filmed in the summer of 2007 with a budget of $20,000, became a popular hit.[3] Slate.com's Seth Stevenson praised Offer for his "impressive and subtle mastery of the pitchman's art" (with lines such as "you know the Germans always make good stuff"), and wondered if Offer's "abrasive manner might also mark a unique, new strategy in the annals of pitchdom." Stevenson compared Offer to earlier, "more upbeat" television pitchmen like the late Billy Mays and the Home Shopping Network hosts and concluded that Offer's "smooth-talking condescension" was more suited to the present "zeitgeist" than the "earnest fervor" of spokesmen like Mays and Ron Popeil.[4]
Consumer Reports reported that the infomercial for ShamWow! initially featured Offer claiming that the product held "20 times its weight in liquid". Later, the infomercial was changed to Offer claiming the ShamWow! held "12 times its weight in liquid", then again to "10 times". Consumer Reports did its own test on the product and found that it does indeed hold 10 times its weight in liquid but no more.[5]
Offer says that he has sold millions of the towels.[3] Notwithstanding his infomercial success, Offer says that "this is not my career" and that he considers himself to be in the film business.[3]
Pitchman Billy Mays had been promoting a similar product called Zorbeez two years prior to Vinces Offer's ShamWow! product. Mays noted that the ShamWow! commercials use many of the same product demonstrations as the earlier-produced Zorbeez commercial. In February 2009 while on the Adam Carolla radio show, Billy Mays publicly challenged Offer to a "pitch off" between their respective absorbent towel products.[6]
Popular Mechanics tested the absorbency of the two towel products and declared ShamWow! was the more effective of the two, but noted "If you have reusable cloth rags (and a roll of paper towels for backup), then neither product is necessary."[7]
This result had been hotly contested by Billy Mays before his death, and was a major part of the season finale of his Discovery Channel show PitchMen.
During the episode, it was suggested that the Popular Mechanics tester did not use the Zorbeez correctly.[8]
Fox's "Deal or Dud" segment tested the ShamWow and struggled to get the product working as advertised, calling it a "dud."
In December 2008, Offer, who had previously sold kitchen utensils at swap meets,[4] appeared in another kitchen-gadget infomercial, advertising the Slap Chop and the Graty. The Slap Chop is a hand-held chopping device with internal blades; to operate it, the user places it over a food item and slaps down the button on the top. The Graty is a cheese grater operated by placing the cheese inside and then turning the outside housing of the utensil which causes the cheese to be grated.[9] Both of these devices are offered in several colors. Offer's aggressiveness and use of double entendres like "you're gonna love my nuts" and in the spanish version "mira mi huevo" and "excitante" have earned him notoriety,[10] and, according to an Adweek blog, helped make Offer "the man who could beat Billy Mays at his own game."
Billy Mays had been promoting a similar product set which included the Quick Chop utensil and the Quick Grater utensil prior to Vince Offer's Slap Chop/Graty product set. Mays again noted that the Slap Chop commercials use many of the same demos as the earlier-produced Quick Chop commercial. Mays said in the same Adam Carolla radio show interview in February 2009 that Offer stole not only the Zorbeez product idea, but also the Quick Chop idea.[6]
On February 7, 2009, Offer was arrested in Miami Beach, Florida on a charge of felony battery after an altercation with a 26-year-old prostitute. Offer contended that he struck the prostitute when she "bit his tongue and would not let go." Prosecutors later declined to file formal charges against either individual.[2][11]