I think infomercials are genius.

Well, maybe that’s overstating it. “Genius” implies some sort of moment of billiance, which isn’t really what’s going on here. Rather, informercials represent such an evolved marketing art, I have to respect them. And I feel compelled to scrutinize how they do it.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, check out some of the best examples, and some great recent 2009 informercials.

The beauty of the informercial pitch is that it always goes the same way. Check out this great infographic showing the escalation of the pitch, driving viewers into a buying frenzy.

The informercial is my favorite guilty “art form”. There are lessons to be learned here about optimization, marketing, and whether we’d like to admit it or not, human nature.