THURSDAY THIRTEEN #115 -- In Memory

I generally don't repeat posts. But #83 just cries out to be rerun! Here's to a remarkable pitchman. As one who works in advertising, whose job is to make people buy stuff, I must laud his prowess.

Thirteen Products
Sold by Billy Mays

He begins all of his many, many TV commercials by announcing/shouting, “Billy Mays here!” My immediate response has always been, “So what?” But since I unintentionally spend more time with this leather-lunged pitchman than I do with members of my family, I decided to do a little research on him. (Thank you, Wikipedia.)

His full name is William D. Mays. He was born in 1958 in McKees Rocks, PA. His birth sign is Cancer. He lives with his wife, Candace, in Odessa Florida. Their home is rumored to be worth $1.8 million.

Billy began his career a salesperson in Atlantic City, selling the “Washmatik” to passersby on the Boardwalk. His big break came when he met Max Appel, the founder of Orange Glo, in the 1993. Max hired Billy to sell their cleaning products on The Home Shopping Network. Today he is the CEO and major star of Mays Productions, Inc.

Here are 13 of the products he has promoted on TV:

1) Awesome Auger
2) The Bedazzler
3) Bloomin’ Onion Maker
4) Fixit Car Scratch Remover
5) Foodsaver
6) Hercules Wall Hook
7) Kaboom!
8) Lint-B-Gone
9) Oxi Clean
10) Never Scrub
11) Swiffer Sweeper Cleaner
12) Zorbeez
13) Mighty Putty (the only one I’ve ever purchased)

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