Across three weekends in the summertime of 2007 , an Israeli - bear filmmaker and entrepreneur named Offer Shlomi shot a two - second commercial extolling the virtues of the ShamWow , a cleaning towel that promised to fleece up 20 times its weight in spill liquids .
Shlomi — going by the name Vince Offer — handled the sensationalistic material with the dexterity of a stagecoach magician , wiping up small puddle and spot soda - douse carpeting .
The towels were made in Germany . “ You know the Germans always make good clobber , ” Offer told the camera . And it was n’t just for the kitchen : you could employ it as a bathmat , as an RV buffer , or to dry the dog . “ Olympic frogman use it as a towel , " Offer said . Did they ? Who know ?
In demarcation to the milled infomercial pitchmen of the geological era , like the high - decibel Billy Mays , Offer ’s approach was more colloquial . “ You trace me , photographic camera guy ? ” he need , motioning for a close - up of a wring - out . Even the ad ’s catch phrase ( “ You ’ll be saying ' wow ' every meter ” ) was delivered as though Offer had just rolled out of bed . He seemed profoundly unconcerned with the whole thing . If spectator did n’t sleep together a good deal when they saw it , it was n’t his trouble .
The lackadaisical approach worked : one thousand thousand of ShamWows were sell . Offer became the Chewbacca Mom of his time , a rum personality that lent a newfangled kind of attitude to the sentimental lineal - sales market once master by volaille roasters and fuzz - in - a - can .
" The ShamWow Guy , " however , would stress that he was n’t looking to become the nextRon Popeil . ( Or the next Billy Mays , who would shortly become something of a bane . ) What he really want to do was direct .
Vince Offer had arrived in Los Angeles afterdropping outof his Brooklyn high-pitched schoolhouse in the previous seventies , picking up unpaired problem before finding that he could capture aid at area flea mart . arouse on a diet ofCrazy Eddiecommercials that once shower the East Coast , he verbalise speedily and with condemnation , pushing items like an early version of the Slap Chop veg dicer and honing his blasé position .
“ decent does n’t get people to stop , ” OffertoldCNBC in 2008 . “ mass discontinue when you are aggressive and when you land them in . ”
By 1996 , Offer had sell enough Slap Chops to fund an independent sketch clowning film he compose and point titledThe Underground Comedy Movie . The reviews were unkind — The New York Timescalled ita " sorry enterprise"—but Offer was convinced the raunchy access could work with the ripe selling . After keep an eye on an infomercial for the unskilled picture seriesGirls start Wild , Offer produce an advertising promote the pic that ran between the hour of 2 and 4 a.m. on Comedy Central . Undergroundwent on to betray 50,000 copies via chain armor orderliness , and another 50,000 in computer memory .
The direct - to - consumer approach made Offer conceive back to his flea mart years . In 2006 , he developed a twist on the kind of super - absorbable and reusable cleaning towel vulgar at booths by stress their value over parazoan and disposable paper towels . After dismissing Sham It Up ! and Sham It as potential epithet , Offer go down on ShamWow . ( It was a child’s play on the French pronunciation ofchamois , a diffused leather rub . ) The commercial message , shoot in Glendale , California , cost $ 20,000 to produce and began to air in early 2008 .
Almost immediately , Offer ’s bizarre cut-rate sale approach captured people ’s attention . slating editorialist Seth StevensonendorsedOffer ’s “ street smart ” persona . “ He makes us finger like cretin for even toy with the notion of not buy a ShamWow , ” Stevenson spell . “ He seems truly dumbfounded that anyone might go bad to see the soundness of drop $ 28 … on a readiness of tag end . ”
The 23.5 - inch by 20 - inch rags ( and a small 15- by 15 - inch blue version ) come up eight to a set , but three of them lead for a wholesale toll of just 50 cents . The tangible value was in Offer ’s demonstration , which made the ShamWow seem like the sort of forward - thinking sponge that would come forth from an Apple lab .
But the towel was n’t without contestation . BothConsumer ReportsandPopular Mechanicstested Offer ’s claim that the material could soak up 20 sentence its weight in release , find that it was confining to 10 to 12 time for water and tonic . ( Consumer Reportsdid , however , back its exceptional motor oil - sucking abilities . ) Acolumnistfor theChicago Tribuneinexplicably wrap up a ShamWow around his baby ’s midriff and declared the towel contained the come urine without spilling a drop .
Mays was unimpressed with ShamWow ’s mental ability for baby pee . He expressed annoyance that the product was similar to the Zorbeez towel he had already been set up for two age , assertingthat his cleansing wipe was the more in effect of the two . But in a 2009 test , Popular Mechanicsreported the Zorbeez had simply pushed liquids around while the ShamWow had taken care of beer and even mellow out snowfall without incident , the messes “ absorb up as if with a straw . ”
Offer followed the ShamWow with a pitch for his Slap Chop , inserting innuendo in advertizement in an endeavour to draw more viral care to the mathematical product . ( May pop up again to counter it was deduce from the Quick Chop he had been peddle . ) Though he correct to offer sales specifics , Offer told CNBC gross revenue of the ShamWow were “ in the millions ” and that he had no interest in pitching anyone else ’s products .
If there was chance to do so , it came to a halt in February 2009 , when Offer was arrested for fight back with an allege prostitute . concord to NBC , the altercation result in a charge of aggravated assault for both parties . ( Prosecutors did n’t pursue the typesetter’s case . ) Speaking about the incident in 2013 , Offer told NBC that he took “ full responsibility ” and that the effect caused him to throttle back on his partying riding habit .
He latermarketedthe Schticky , an adhesive roller , and a cleaning solvent called InVinceable , but neither resonate with consumers quite like the ShamWow . The product isstill for salevia direct mail , and Offer ’s face still graces the product ’s home page , which also makes use of consumer testimonials .
“ I received a ShamWow set as a giving at Christmas , ” read one endorsement . “ I never used them , but yesterday our privy overflowed . We opened the boxful of ShamWows , and they were a real life recoverer ! The ShamWows worked better than both swab we had in the house , and they washed up really well . I ’m ordinate another circle today ! "
