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Vince Offer is an actor, screenwriter, producer, director, and informercial pitchman well known for his advertisements for his products the Slap Chop and ShamWow. The success of Offer's advertisements and his distinct style of pitching have made him one of the most popular infomercial personalities to date.
Born in Beersheba, Israel, Vince Offer was raised in the Jewish and Italian neighborhood of Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. In his childhood, Vince loved the diversity of the people of Brooklyn and their sense of humor, particularly high energy personalities portrayed in famous figures like the character Vinny Barbarino in the popular TV Show “Welcome Back Kotter” and DJ Jerry Carroll who portrayed “Crazy Eddie” a popular NY commercial. At 17 years old, Offer left Brooklyn for LA to make a name for himself.
Vince Offer's first experience in infomercials began when he needed to promote the trailer for his first film. The informercial was a successful experiment and helped Offer sell 50,000 copies from direct order sales and 50,000 to stores across the country. Vince soon returned to selling products in flea markets and quickly learned marketing and sales strategies needed to make a name for himself. One part of salesmanship that he immediately internalized was the importance of catching, and keeping, the attention of potential customers.
During his time in flea markets, Vince acknowledged that the popularity of cleaning products and kitchen gadgets were rapidly growing. Despite this popularity, however, he noticed that many of the great products that he saw did not have strong enough marketing to distinguish themselves from competitors. This meant that the products were not as accessible to potential customers as they could be, and customers were missing out on items that could make their lives easier. Vince took these observations to heart and made the decision to market dependable products in creative ways.
ShamWow was Vince Offer's first experience in the informercial space for a product unrelated to his films. In 2006, he found the product and was amazed with its quality and the lack of marketing behind the brand. After visiting the German company that manufactures the towels, Vince got to work with marketing it to potential customers. ShamWow's iconic name came to be when Vince was inspired by the French pronunciation of “chamois”. Combining this finding with the “wow” reaction that he routinely got from his audience when pitching the product, ShamWow stuck and became its official name. Years later, new customers are still impressed with ShamWow's ability to effortlessly soak up spills.
Offer filmed his infomercial for ShamWow on a low budget. The product performed well in tests and garnered a reaction from viewers. In addition to the praise that ShamWow was given for its high quality and everyday usefulness, Vince himself received critical acclaim for his performance in the informercial. Critics mentioned that Offer had a polished pitch that combined with his aggressive, yet affable, demeanor to create a tremendously successful commercial for the product. His presence was a contrast to earlier informercial personalities that became well known for their enthusiastic energy. ShamWow, over the years, has remained extremely popular among customers. Despite millions of sales since 2006, ShamWow towels are very rarely returned. Vince considers this a testament to the product's ability to hold up to 10 times its weight in liquid, as advertised.
In 2008, Vince Offer began to advertise for the Slap Chop. Revolutionary in its design, the Slap Chop simplifies prepping fruits and vegetables by allowing chefs to place their favorite ingredients under the product and cut them by slapping the button on the top of the device. Again, critics and viewers praised Offer for his unique style of pitching, double entendres, comedic timing, and influence on the evolution of informercials. The Slap Chop advertisement became a viral sensation as well as a commercial success. Several remixes of the Slap Chop commercial were created, including an auto tuned “Slap Chop Rap” remix by DJ Steve Porter that developed a cult following in 2009. Slap Chop celebrated its 10-year anniversary in April of 2019, which was commemorated by DJ Steve Porter with a repost of the famous remix. To date, Slap Chop has done millions in sales and customers continue to praise how much time the device saves when preparing meals at home.
Since the success of the Slap Chop and ShamWow, Offer has produced and appeared in commercials for several of his other products. These include the Schticky, a reusable lint roller, InVinceable, a liquid cleaner, and the Crank Chop, a kitchen utensil similar to Offer's Slap Chop. Excerpts from his commercials have been featured in popular television series and movies such as Breaking Bad and Iron Man 3.