As Seen On TV

What is it with the resurgence of this inane expression/logo? I have seen it now on quite a few trucks advertising the trade of the owner; plumbers, electricians and the like. I certainly have no objection to someone promoting their business on a vehicle. In fact, I have even been influenced to try a painter after seeing a promotional message on his truck.

It's this stupid logo that I don't like. You can find it almost every week in some lame ad in the Parade magazine. Yellow Pages ads display it proudly and it's even popping up in classified job listings.

Back in the early days of television people were idiots. Some genius on Madison Avenue figured out that if a product had appeared on television it had instant credibility with the viewing public. After all, not every product at the time made it to TV. Never mind that most products shown on TV paid to be there. The morons wouldn't know the difference.

So we saw a lot of this vapid, meaningless endorsement in the 50's and 60's, but after a while the viewers got wise to the whole scam. The more sophisticated practitioners would later offer a version that stated "As featured in the Wall Street Journal." Again, if you pay to advertise in a publication or on television, it's not the same thing as an actual endorsement.

Why are we seeing this ugly tombstone of early television-era kitsch? I would understand it if the context was supposed to be campy, but the examples I've seen were all serious.

I think there are two possibilities here. One is that advertisers believe the American public is getting more gullible. The other is that the folks using "As Seen On TV" are not the marketing geniuses they think they are.