Ever watch those horrific infomercials on TV?

Fed up with the pabulum being pitched on local TV news channels this morning, I instead decided to check out the ‘paid programming’.

What I saw was patronizing, if not pathetic. One spot, for example, featured a real estate guru who guaranteed he’d make millionaires out of any viewer willing to follow his ‘simple, six-step, zero money down’ investment philosophy.  Yeah, sure.

Another showed scores of beaming, middle-aged housewives holding up their tent-like jeans and dresses. They’d each lost inches from their waistlines by following some bogus, seven-minute isometric exercise. The erstwhile ‘big gals,’ waxed poetic about their newfound energy, love lives and wardrobes. And they positively gushed about the isometric gadget, since it required only seven minutes daily out of their busy schedules. Scores of pounds lost? Inches melted away? All from isometrics? Me thinks not.

There are all sorts of other ‘too good to be true’
money-saving, weight loss products being pitched by Triple A-type
infomercial personalities. Every single product works. Every single
segment has scores of endorsements. And, every single spot goes on and
on forever.

So, who watches this trash and, even scarier, who spends money on these
scams? I have to believe it’s the ‘great, unwashed masses.’ Having hit
a dead-end financially or physically, millions and millions of
Americans are tuning into infomercials and their slimy, sleazy
promises. They fall for the pitchman’s promises the same way they fall
for those of the televangelists.

It’s sad to think there are so many desperate, gullible people. I’m not
sure if the system’s failed them or they’ve given up. But, the fact
remains that infomercials are more prevalent than ever. I’d posit more
pearls of wisdom on the subject, but there’s an infomercial promising
to increase my energy levels by 100 percent and, hey, they accept all
major credit cards! Gotta go.