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Ginsu
Ginsu (; pseudoword meant to evoke the idea of samurai heritage) is a brand of direct marketed knives. The brand is owned by the Douglas Quikut Division of Scott Fetzer, a Berkshire Hathaway Company. The brand was heavily promoted in the late 1970s and 1980s on U.S. television by using infomercials characterized by hawker and hard sell pitch techniques. The commercials generated sales of between two and three million Ginsu sets between 1978 and 1984. Early history Ginsu knives are an evolution of a product line developed by the Clyde Castings Company. The company filed for a trademark on the Quikut name for use on carving knives, butcher knives, fruit knives, kitchen knives and can openers in 1921. Quikut knives were heavily advertised in the U.S. and Canada as inexpensive, stainless steel, hollow ground knives with a lifetime guarantee. Other well known brands that used Quikut knives as promotional items including Lipton Tea and Oxydol. Large national newspaper, magazin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quikut Warranty
Ginsu (; pseudoword meant to evoke the idea of samurai heritage) is a brand of direct response marketing, direct marketed knives. The brand is owned by the Douglas Quikut Division of Scott Fetzer, a Berkshire Hathaway Company. The brand was heavily promoted in the late 1970s and 1980s on U.S. television by using infomercials characterized by hawker (trade), hawker and hard sell pitch techniques. The commercials generated sales of between two and three million Ginsu sets between 1978 and 1984. Early history Ginsu knives are an evolution of a product line developed by the Clyde Castings Company. The company filed for a trademark on the Quikut name for use on carving knives, Butcher knife, butcher knives, fruit knives, Kitchen knife, kitchen knives and Can opener, can openers in 1921. Quikut knives were heavily advertised in the U.S. and Canada as inexpensive, stainless steel, hollow ground knives with a lifetime guarantee. Other well known brands that used Quikut knives as promoti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ed Valenti
Ed Valenti is an American Television personality, advertising pioneer, and entrepreneur. In the 1970s he founded Dial Media, which created numerous techniques that transformed infomercials on television in the United States and beyond. His techniques were used on a variety of products but were best known for their use in the now legendary Ginsu knife commercial. They sold millions of units across America between the mid-70s to mid-80s and were eventually acquired by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway in 1985 for an undisclosed sum. Valenti and his business partner Barry Becher founded Dial Media, Inc., one of the first major infomercial companies in the world. Using various evolutionary selling techniques, Valenti sold over $500 million worth of units of various products from the 1970s onwards using mostly TV. Valenti is credited with coining a number of phrases widely adopted by advertisers today, including: “But wait, there’s more!”, “Now how much would you pay?” ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Direct Response Marketing
Direct marketing is a form of communicating an offer, where organizations communicate directly to a pre-selected customer and supply a method for a direct response. Among practitioners, it is also known as ''direct response marketing''. In contrast to direct marketing, advertising is more of a mass-message nature. Response channels include toll-free telephone numbers, reply cards, reply forms to be sent in an envelope, websites and email addresses. The prevalence of direct marketing and the unwelcome nature of some communications has led to regulations and laws such as the CAN-SPAM Act, requiring that consumers in the United States be allowed to opt out. Overview Intended targets are selected from larger populations based on vendor-defined criteria, including average income for a particular ZIP code, purchasing history and presence on other lists. The goal is "to sell directly to consumers" without letting others "join (the) parade." Compared to general marketing whic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Infomercial
An infomercial is a form of television commercial that resembles regular TV programming yet is intended to promote or sell a product, service or idea. It generally includes a toll-free telephone number or website. Most often used as a form of direct response television (DRTV), they are often ''programlength commercials'' (long-form infomercials), and are typically 28:30 or 58:30 minutes in length. Infomercials are also known as paid programming (or teleshopping in Europe). This phenomenon started in the United States, where infomercials were typically shown overnight and early morning (usually 1:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.), outside peak prime time hours for commercial broadcasters. Some television stations chose to air infomercials as an alternative to the former practice of signing off, while other channels air infomercials 24 hours a day. Some stations also choose to air infomercials during the daytime hours, mostly on weekends, to fill in for unscheduled network or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Berkshire Hathaway Company
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. () is an American multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. Originally a textile manufacturer, the company transitioned into a conglomerate starting in 1965 under the management of chairman and CEO Warren Buffett and vice chairman Charlie Munger (from 1978 to 2023). Greg Abel now oversees most of the company's investments and has been named as Buffett's successor. Buffett personally owns 38.4% of the Class A voting shares of Berkshire Hathaway, representing a 15.1% overall economic interest in the company. The company is often compared to an investment fund; between 1965, when Buffett gained control of the company, and 2023, the company's shareholder returns amounted to a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.8% compared to a 10.2% CAGR for the S&P 500. However, in the 10 years ending in 2023, Berkshire Hathaway produced a CAGR of 11.8% for shareholders, compared to a 12.0% CAGR for the S&P 500. From 1965 to 2023, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John And Lorena Bobbitt
John Wayne Bobbitt (born 1967) and Lorena Gallo (formerly Lorena Bobbitt; born May 15, 1969) were an American former couple, married on June 18, 1989, whose relationship received international press coverage in 1993 when Lorena severed John's penis with a kitchen knife while he was asleep in bed; the penis was successfully surgically reattached. Lorena, an Ecuadorian immigrant, alleged that her husband John, a bar bouncer and former U.S. Marine, had raped and abused her for years. John was charged with rape later that year but was acquitted and subsequently starred in two pornographic films. The next year, Lorena was acquitted of assault by reason of insanity and went on to start a foundation for domestic abuse victims and their children. The couple divorced in 1995. Attack Lorena severed her husband John's penis on June 23, 1993 at their home in Manassas, Virginia. Lorena stated in a court hearing that, after coming home that evening, her husband had raped her. After he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pseudoword
A pseudoword is a unit of speech or text that appears to be an actual word in a certain language, while in fact it has no meaning. It is a specific type of nonce word, or even more narrowly a nonsense word, composed of a combination of phonemes which nevertheless conform to the language's phonotactic rules. It is thus a kind of vocable: utterable but meaningless. Such words lacking a meaning in a certain language or absent in any text corpus or dictionary can be the result of (the interpretation of) a truly random signal, but there will often be an underlying deterministic source, as is the case for examples like ''jabberwocky'' and '' galumph'' (both coined in a nonsense poem by Lewis Carroll), '' dord'' (a ghost word published due to a mistake), ciphers, and typos. A string of nonsensical words may be described as gibberish. Word salad, in contrast, may contain legible and intelligible words but without semantic or syntactic correlation or coherence. Characteristics ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jerry Seinfeld
Jerome Allen Seinfeld ( ; born April 29, 1954) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and producer. As a stand-up comedian, Seinfeld specializes in observational comedy. Seinfeld gained stardom playing a semi-fictionalized version of himself in the NBC sitcom ''Seinfeld'' (1989–1998), which he co-created and wrote with Larry David. Seinfeld earned a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy in 1995. The show is one of the most acclaimed and popular sitcoms of all time. He has since created and produced the reality series '' The Marriage Ref'' (2010–2011), and created and hosted the web series '' Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee'' (2012–2019), the latter of which earned him three Webby Awards. He also co-produced, co-wrote, and starred in the DreamWorks animated film '' Bee Movie'' (2007) and the Netflix comedy '' Unfrosted'' (2024). He has released four standup specials, his first being '' Stand-Up Confidential'' (1987), foll ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Copywriter
Copywriting is the act or occupation of writing text for the purpose of advertising or other forms of marketing. Copywriting is aimed at selling products or services. The product, called copy or sales copy, is written content that aims to increase brand awareness and ultimately persuade a person or group to take a particular action. Copywriters help to create billboards, brochures, catalogs, jingle lyrics, magazine and newspaper advertisements, sales letters and other direct mail, scripts for television or radio commercials, taglines, white papers, website and social media posts, pay-per-click and other marketing communications. All this aligned with the target audience's expectations while keeping the content and copy fresh, relevant, and effective. Employment Many copywriters are employed in marketing departments, advertising agencies, public relations firms, or copywriting agencies, or are self-employed as freelancers, whose clients may range from small to lar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johnny Carson
John William Carson (October 23, 1925 – January 23, 2005) was an American television host, comedian, and writer best known as the host of NBC's ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' (1962–1992). Carson is a cultural phenomenon and widely known as the King of Late Night. Carson received six Primetime Emmy Awards, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, Television Academy's 1980 Governor's Award and a 1985 Peabody Award. He was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1987. Carson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1992 and received a Kennedy Center Honors, Kennedy Center Honor in 1993.Johnny CarsonEncyclopædia Britannica Online (2009). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved July 30, 2009. During World War II, Carson served in the United States Navy. After the war he started a career in radio, then moved to television and took over as host of the late-night talk show ''Tonight'' from Jack Paar in 1962. Carson remained an American cultural ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vince Offer
Offer Shlomi (; born April 25, 1964), better known as Vince Offer or Vince Shlomi, is an Israeli-American infomercial pitchman, screenwriter, actor and director, who is the president and CEO of television advertising industry Square One Entertainment. Offer's first major work was the 1999 comedy film ''The Underground Comedy Movie''. He appears in television commercials for his own products including "ShamWow!", an absorbent towel; the "Slap Chop", a kitchen utensil; a lint roller called the "Schticky"; a liquid cleaner called "InVinceable"; and another kitchen utensil called "Crank Chop". Early life Offer Shlomi was born in Beersheva, Israel. His family immigrated to the U.S. when he was a child and he grew up in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, New York. Offer grew up with a single mother. Offer dropped out of high school at the age of 17 and moved to Los Angeles. He changed his name to Vince Offer in 1986 and started appearing on public access television. Career Film In 1996, Offer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Thompson (media Scholar)
Robert James Thompson (born 1959) is an American educator and media scholar. He is the Trustee Professor of Television and Popular Culture at the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University and founding director of the ''Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture''. He is widely quoted in media. His areas of research are television history, Popular Culture, media criticism, and TV programming. Thompson's various soundbites have been dubbed by the Associated Press as "Thompson-isms". On February 4, 2009 Jon Hein of the Howard Stern Show announced that Thompson is his "arch nemesis," referring to popular culture trivia. Biography Thompson was born in Westmont, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago to LeRoy Edward and Joan Alice Thompson. He holds a B.A. in political science from the University of Chicago (1981) and an M.A. (1982) and Ph.D. (1987) in radio, television and film from Northwestern University. Thompson began his academic career at SUNY Cor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
