I hadn't seen most of these commercials, since I own and obsessively use a Tivo. Did we miss your favorite ad or clip? Share it in the comments.
| Arguably, Orange Glo was his breakout product. Here's a two-minute version of the infomercial in all of its cabinet-dunking, floor-polishing glory. |
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| WOW, A YARD SALE! Watch Billy save an entire yard full of abused furniture in this Orange Glo spot. |
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In this Orange Glo outtake, Mays falls over while simulating "years of wear and tear damage" on a hardwood floor with a sander. |
| KABOOM! And the soap scum is gone. How many people can radiate this much joy while cleaning a shower door? |
| Infomercial products find a need that people didn't previously realize they had, then fill it for $19.95. In the case of the Oxi Clean detergent ball, that need was the desire not to measure and pour laundry detergent for months on end. |
| Big City Sliders: Cook tiny burgers on your stovetop for some reason. |
| Samurai Shark - Let's be honest, this product is way less cool than the name sounds. |
| We can't forget Mighty Putty. |
| He also pitched a very timely product—low-cost health insurance. |
| One of the reasons that I found Billy Mays tolerable is that he was willing to poke fun at his image, and even at his profession. Pitching baking soda as if it were a new miracle product always made me smile. |
| His series of ESPN 360 ads are also great self-parody. Here, the service is a typical infomerical miracle product that finds a need, then fills it. That need? Watching sports. |
| Or, watching sports while on the run from Japanese gangsters. |
| Finally, Billy pretended to work in an office for a day for an Electronic Retailers Association awards sketch. Too funny. (Check out the outtakes, too.) |
(Photo: azrainman)
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