Infomercial Lobbyists vs. Tucker Bounds

A press release from the Electronic Retailing Association, the direct marketers trade association. Courtesy of Marc Ambinder...

Last night, the Barack Obama campaign took an unprecedented step in the history of the infomercial, by running concurrently on several networks in the prime time half-hour beginning at 8 p.m. to make an appeal to voters in the form of an infomercial. The John McCain camp, led by spokesperson Tucker Bounds responded, "As anyone who has bought anything from an infomercial knows, the sales-job is always better than the product. Buyer beware."

Rick Petry, Acting President and CEO of the Electronic Retailing Association, a trade association that represents direct marketers that use electronic means including infomercials, had this response. "To use a political agenda to indict an entire genre of advertising by portraying it in such a negative light is patently unfair. It would be like charging an entire industry and everyone associated with it, say politics for example, as being scurrilous. We at ERA will be the first to tell you that there are some who use this method of advertising inappropriately, which is why we have an independent self-regulation program, ERSP ( http://www.narcpartners.org/ersp/index.aspx ), administered by the National Advertising Review Council in partnership with the Council of Better Business Bureau. With this watchdog mechanism in place, claims have to be proven; a standard that politicians are not required to live up to. The fact is infomercials have been used by not only start-ups with unique products, but successful brands such as Kodak and Mercedes Benz, even the U.S. Navy."