Gaga Over Gadgets : You’re Just a TV and a Telephone Away From No-Mess Bacon and a Carwash on a Stick

Ana Pinzon succumbed to temptation late one weekday night. The lights were dim, music played in the background and she simply couldn’t resist. Before she knew it, she was dialing an 800 number, credit card in hand, and ordering a self-wringing mop she had just seen advertised on television.

“I couldn’t help myself. It looked like a fantastic product,” said Pinzon, 34, who had never shopped from television before and now claims to love her mop.

Like other neophyte TV shoppers before her, Pinzon, who lives in Los Angeles, caved in to the siren call of so-called direct response television not via the Home Shopping Channel or long-winded infomercials, but after watching a seemingly innocuous “short form” spot that crept in between regular commercials during her favorite sitcom rerun.

Most TV viewers have seen such spots at one time or another. Typically ranging in length from 30 to 120 seconds, they sell everything from instructional videos and music collections to beauty and automotive products to thingamajigs that thaw food in minutes or miraculously clean tarnished silver.

And lest you scoff at the thought of purchasing a product such as the Sort ‘N Bank coin sorter, consider: In 1994 it was estimated that infomercials, short form spots, and QVC and the Home Shopping Network together generated sales of $4 billion, said Helene Blake, executive director of the National Infomercial Marketing Assn.

The manufacturers might not say so, but these products tend to be gadgets, even gimmicks, that appeal to something a little odd in the buyer. Knowing which ones are “hot” at any given time provides a slightly screwy window into the nation’s consuming soul, which seems to be obsessed with fatty foods, automobiles, muscles and cleanliness.

And while the numbers are peanuts compared, say, to the $50 billion or so generated by the catalog industry, they are still nothing to laugh at and are growing fast. Which is why more people are eager to profit from the direct response television boom, which allows them to eventually move their products into the more profitable store-retailing market.

John Kogler, publisher of the Jordan Whitney Greensheet, notes that a nice short spot can be filmed for $25,000, where an average infomercial demands a budget of $250,000.

The Greensheet ranks shows based on frequency of airing, longevity and amount spent on purchasing air time. These were the top 10 direct response spots for one recent week, in order of popularity.

* Silver Lightning: Place this metal conductor plate in a sink filled with water, mix baking soda or salt, add your silverware and, presto! everything comes out shiny and clean in minutes with no scrubbing required. It’s the hottest-selling product right now, Kogler said, and costs $19.95.

* Soloflex: A household word by now, this $1,500 home gym remains a favorite. The Seattle-based manufacturer of the first home weightlifting machine has moved more than 500,000 units since its founding in 1978; it started direct response advertising in 1986. It and some other products, such as Nordic Track, don’t offer direct sales but an 800 number for more information.

* “Psychic friends:” This 900 number for advice, which features Dionne Warwick as spokeswoman, is also advertised in a longer infomercial that was ranked No. 1 last year by Jordan Whitney.

* Nordic Track: Another workout favorite, it’s been on the charts for more than two years.

* “Dorf Goes Fishing:” A fishing video with comic Tim Conway.

* Bacon Wave: A truly hot product, this microwaveable plastic tray cooks bacon to a crisp in minutes while allowing fat and grease to drip to the bottom, all for $14.95 plus shipping and handling. The idea of no-mess, crispy, leaner bacon is so appealing that the Bacon Wave is selling at a rate of 50,000 to 60,000 units a month, just through TV. The Bacon Wave is now available in retail outlets, which was the intent of Emson, the New York-based company that manufactures and markets the product.

“Our goal is to put [our products] in every shelf of America and have them become basic household items,” says Larry Nusbaum, executive vice president of Emson, which manufactures products as diverse as the purebred pet mitt (a gentle grooming mitt) and the a manual food processor. Nusbaum said the Bacon Wave’s success has also made a millionaire out of its Georgia inventor, Alton Barr.

* Jingle Ring: Unlike most products sold through spots, the Jingle Ring does not have a utilitarian purpose. Instead, this contraption allows the user to change the ring on his phone, with 10 rings to choose from, ranging from a cow’s mooing to rap music. “It’s perfect for people who have everything, and it’s doing absolutely fabulous,” says Amy Smith, advertising and public relations director for Direct to Retail, the Massachusetts company that developed the product.

Like Emson, Direct to Retail seeks to take products to the retail market and has made success stories out of the orthopedic Contour Pillow and the Tripledge Wiper Blades for cars. Thanks to its successful track record on television, in fact, Tripledge is sold in 60,000 retail stores, Smith said.

* The Miracle Mop: The story of this self-wringing all-cotton mop reads like a modern-day version of “The Little Engine that Could.” “Never in a million mops did I think this would be so successful,” said inventor Joy Mangano, who today heads her own company, Ingenious Designs, on Long Island. Mangano introduced her mop on QVC in 1992; this year sales are expected to hit more than $50 million. “We’ve sold millions of mops,” chirped Mangano, who also manufactures a roll-up portable storage unit called a Rolykit and a jewelry storage device called the Jewel Kit, which has a 200-cubic-inch storage capacity.

* Ab Flex: Another fitness product, this one bombed when it was introduced but lately has flourished under a new marketing company, Kent & Spiegel Direct in Culver City.

* Shiwala: Another Emson product, this one is touted as “the carwash on a stick.” The Shiwala is a long stick with a soft head made of a material similar to that used by commercial carwashes. It claims to allow users to achieve professional carwash results in five minutes and keeps hands free of detergents. It sells for $19.95.

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The secret to successful TV sales, Miracle Mop inventor Mangano said, is simple: “Sell good quality products and fulfill a need.”

Other essentials, said Rob Woodrooffe, owner of Interwood Marketing, a direct response marketing company with offices in Ontario, are “a product with mass appeal, with consumer benefits and that needs demonstration to be sold.” Fulfilling these requirements is not as easy as it sounds. Typically, Woodrooffe said, his office gets 150 to 200 prospective products a month of which he takes on maybe three or four. The winners? Products such as the Thighmaster and Easy Step. Among the rejects? An electric fly swatter.