
ShamWow: A jerk you'll want to buy rags from. - acangiano
http://www.slate.com/id/2190658
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alex_c
I think I was too busy trying to figure out who in their right mind would try
to sell something named Sham-anything to actually pay attention to the pitch.

I just can't shake the feeling that the name is intentional and a big joke on
the consumers.

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jrockway
The ad looked fake to me. There is no way it soaked up all that cola that
quickly; I think he preloaded the rag with cola.

A google search reveals that these things don't work at all.

Sometimes I think I'm too cynical ... but I haven't found this to ever be the
case ;)

~~~
akd
The trick is the almost-invisible edit as they zoom into the underside view of
the cola-stained rug.

~~~
jrockway
Exactly.

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henning
When Seth Godin talks about how companies should be remarkable, he usually
focuses on industrial sectors that are currently en vogue (technology), or
boutique premium services/goods. He excludes about 95% of businesses, which
sell mundane goods like vacuum cleaners.

I guess guys like this are the answer to how you should go about selling
vacuums, rags, and industrial pipe fittings?

~~~
ROFISH
Dyson, instead of crazy late night marketing, just plain built a
technologically better vacuum and marketed it as a Ferrari of vacuums. There's
plenty of ways to sell household goods without resorting to the infomercial
style of ads.

~~~
thaumaturgy
I briefly had a job repairing vacuum cleaners years ago.

Dyson vacuums are seriously overpriced pieces of junk, but few people realize
it because they don't see them broken in the same ways all the time. A few
notable points on their really shoddy engineering:

\- The power cord was not a heavy enough gauge for the current the motor was
pulling. I was amazed to find that the cord itself got hot -- not warm, but
hot -- while running the vacuum. This happened on every one I worked on, so it
wasn't a random bad motor.

\- Instead of a plain ol' belt-driven brush, Dysons use a belt-driven brush
with a NEW! FANCY! CLUTCH! at the other end. To save you the trouble of ever
having to replace a two-dollar belt, they added in an 80-dollar part that cost
an hours' technician labor to replace when it (inevitably) failed.

\- Everything was plastic. Notably, the plastic rotating brush rode directly
on a set of plastic rails in the front housing piece. Why is this bad? Well,
it works OK so long as everything is perfectly aligned, but if for some reason
the brush catches something and comes out of alignment while spinning, then it
eats right through the plastic carriage. The replacement cost for a new front
nose piece, plus brush, including labor, was around two hundred bucks if I
remember right.

I will grant the Dyson uses a clever filter system that I wish more vacuums
used. For example, its motor is guarded by a spongy HEPA filter which prevents
it from falling victim to all the fine-grained dust that destroys the bearings
in everyone else's vacuums.

The downside is, we had more than one customer that didn't wait long enough
before reinstalling the sponge that they had just rinsed, and so completely
destroyed their motor. Dyson specifically refuses to cover that particular
error in their warranty.

...And that's more than you ever wanted to know about Dyson vacuums. :-)

~~~
HeyLaughingBoy
I'll add a quick rebut: my wife exclusively used Dyson vacuums in her
housecleaning business. Sure they cost more, but they were so much faster than
standard vacuums, (and still much cheaper than say the Hoover industrial vacs)
that the cleaning crew could get out of a house and on to the next job that
much quicker. On average they lasted about a year before needing to be
replaced. That's a year of heavy daily use, being wrestled in and out of
vehicles and used by people who didn't pay for them.

We use a Dyson Animal at home (2 large, shedding dogs and 2 cats) -- the only
remaining one from the business and the thing is phenomenal!

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nuclear_eclipse
ShomWow was the first commercial where I ever had to slap myself afterwards
for even thinking about buying a product shown on TV. I even looked it up
online because it looked far beyond "too good to be true" and off into
"miraculous"...

~~~
Alex3917
I saw this ad on TV and had a similar response. (Didn't actually seriously
consider buying it, but it's the first time I've ever been impressed by
something on a late night infomercial.) I didn't realize so many others felt
the same way. This guy must be really good.

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jonknee
He's a skinnier version of Billy Mays. They are both loaded (Mays almost
unfathomably so, he drives around in a Rolls).

------
initself
must...not...produce...credit card...from...wallet

