Dueling Promoters of Car Waxes Take Ads to Court

A Philadelphia television marketing company and Tony Hoffman, the real estate promoter turned TV pitchman, have traded lawsuits over the company’s claim that Hoffman copied its advertisements for a car wax.

Media Arts International Ltd. sued Hoffman, one of his partners and a Scottsdale, Ariz., television marketer, Twin Star Productions, on Feb. 23 in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, claiming that Hoffman’s 30-minute ad for “Liquid Lustre” car wax was a knockoff of theirs for “Auri” car wax.

Before that lawsuit, Hoffman and his Thousand Oaks company, Maui Productions, responded to earlier Media Arts complaints by filing suit Jan. 26 in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, claiming the Philadelphia company used ideas for the car wax ad from Hoffman and his associates--even though the Media Arts ad was first to air.

Two weeks ago, Media Arts and Twin Star reached a settlement in the suits, and Hoffman said he expects to agree to a similar settlement with Media Arts soon. Hoffman and an attorney declined to disclose the terms of the settlements.

Both the “Auri” and “Liquid Lustre” commercials are part of a growing business made possible when the federal government lifted regulations in the early 1980s that limited how many minutes of advertising could run during a single hour. The 30-minute commercials appear mostly late at night on independent or cable television stations.

The ads for “Liquid Lustre” and “Auri” both feature a host and another man who demonstrates that the waxes apparently protect cars from flames, spray paint and acid. Both also feature a mock-bargaining process in which the host pretends to negotiate down the price of the wax to the same price, $29.95. Both even show cars and car panels that are the same colors.

Hoffman first came into public view as one of the best-known and flashiest advocates of no-money-down real estate deals in the mid-1980s. Hoffman bought time on cable TV stations to air his program, “Everybody’s Money Matters,” to sell his $495 home-study course that advised people to use IOUs to buy property in the hope of turning around and selling it for more before the IOU came due. But various problems--including thousands of customers clamoring for refunds--forced both Hoffman and his company to liquidate to pay off creditors in 1988.

Hoffman produced the “Liquid Lustre” TV commercials, and Twin Star buys the air time and handles the telephone marketing.

The recent lawsuits provide some insight into the somewhat obscure business of selling goods on 30-minute advertisements.

Based on a filing by Twin Star Productions, the TV commercials seem to be paying off. In January, Twin Star sold $2.75-million of “Liquid Lustre” and agreed to buy about $647,000 worth of air time for the Liquid Lustre ads from 400 stations during March. Twin Star said its ads generally run 1,000 to 2,500 times each month on enough stations to reach 75 million households.

Hoffman said in a sworn statement that he was “involved in” making a Twin Star ad for a “diet patch” that was hosted by Michael Reagan, son of the former president. Several state agencies forced Twin Star to stop selling the diet patch device, which was supposed to be worn next to the skin to aid weight loss.

Although he declined to describe the proposed settlement with Media Arts, Hoffman said he has edited the “Liquid Lustre” ads to appease the Philadelphia company. The edits, described in his court statement, included removing part of the ad when Hoffman, the host, bargains the price down on the car wax, and a warning that the demonstrations are dangerous.

But according to Twin Star’s filings, both car wax ads are based on sales pitches by a man who has sold “Liquid Lustre” at state fairs since 1984.