Billy Mays' death leaves infomercial void, but pitches will go on

Billy Mays' death Sunday leaves a void in the infomercial world that won't easily be filled, according to industry insiders.

But his death, apparently from heart disease, doesn't mean that his infomercials currently airing will go away soon.

His 30-minute pitches for Mighty Putty and Mighty Mendit are on a one-week hiatus but will return Monday.

Media Enterprises, maker of the glue products, calls it a moment of "advertising silence for the world's greatest infomercial voice."

The commercials will resume, according to Bill McAlister, president of Media Enterprises, "because Mays would want the show to go on."

Mays also has about a dozen short spots airing for OxiClean and other household helpers, and his reality television series "Pitchmen" wraps up its first season at 10 p.m. Wednesday on the Discovery Channel. The series was renewed but its future is uncertain. Discovery officials have not announced whether it will continue.

One industry expert questions whether it's wise for companies to continue to air commercials and infomercials featuring Mays.

Sam Catanese, head of Infomercial Monitoring Service, says the Mays infomercials probably will begin to disappear after about 30 days.

"You might be surprised at how many people are disconnected from the news and won't know that he is dead," he said in a telephone interview today.

"He was a tremendous talent and there is no one ready to step up now and take his place," Catanese adds, pointing out that the kind of trust and fame Mays had didn't happen overnight.

"He was on for years and he became well-known because he was on so often – as much as 50,000 times and that's a lot of exposure," Catanese says.

Direct-response marketing reportedly generates $150 billion to $170 billion in sales each year, though some estimates run higher. That includes sales of "As Seen on TV" gadgets in retail stores and sales on cable shopping channels.

AJ Khubani, founder/CEO of TeleBrands (the "As Seen on TV" company), says Mays "innovative role and impact on the growth and wide acceptance of direct response television cannot be overestimated or easily replaced; he was truly one of a kind."

Khubani, who had worked with Mays since the early 1990s, says the so-called "king of the infomercials" will be sorely missed.

Mays followed in the footsteps of the legendary Ron Popeil, who has been hailed as the grandfather of infomercials.

Popeil became famous for his Chop-O-Matic infomercials in the 1950s and the Veg-O-Matic in the early 1960s. Through the 1980s and '90s, he continued to be a force with the Popeil Pocket Fisherman and the Showtime Rotisserie ("Set it, and forget it!").

Viewership of infomercials is at an all-time high, says Catanese whose Pennsylvania company tracks more than 30,000 hours of infomercials each month. But that's only a portion of the estimated 220,000 hours airing monthly on cable networks and TV stations.

He says the downturn in the economy has opened up more TV airtime for infomercials as other advertisers (the automobile industry, for example) have cutback budgets.

Catanese also says there will be new "pitch people" rising up because of the attention focused on Mays and the "Pitchmen" TV series. "There are already people sending out tapes and resumes claiming to be the next Billy Mays," he says.