I remember as a kid being amazed when I visited Queensland and saw these 1/2 hour advertisements that were like mini shows.

Sadly since then these insipid and vapid infomercials have spread and infested televisions across the nation.

Whatever happened to the late night movies that Channel 9 used to run, why dont the stations play repeats of some of their primetime or popular shows then (to give people a chance that missed them to catch up, or at least some quality viewing overnight), or even replay other great shows that have disappeared off tv?

Obviously they are a financial plus for the stations but who the hell actually buys these products thus making the advertisements financially viable for the sponsors?? There is probably 1 in 10 products that may actually be useful and how many alternate versions of an abdominal workout machine can there be?

that Proactiv infomercial has got to have the record for the longest running in Australian history of infomercials..how long has it been going for...?????

wished for repeats of primetime/other shows instead

wished 9 would bring back late night movies instead  

watched one

not worried because youre fast asleep

wondered who buys this stuff!

most i could answer too..lol..

there has been one lil thing that i have actually liked ..its a er..Magic Bullet Blender

Oh gods that proactive infomercial drives me nuts.  

The worst infomercial is the one for the magic bullet. I hate those people pretending to be at a friends house for a party, the acting is so bad and some of the food is ghastly. Problem is, if I can't sleep and it's on, I get mezmorised by it and can't look away.  

If they're going to have them on tv they should at least give them the late night spots, but there are infomercials on prime time too. I've never been tempted to buy anything off them.

Cass.

You can't tell me Guthy Renker isn't must see tv.

seriously they are all a waste of space and i would much rather have some late night movies..old tv shows et al

that anthony robbins guy is extremely annoying..

What annoys me are those late night SMS ads. You have to wonder who is stupid enough to actually text these things.

"SMS the word HOTSEX to [number] to receive your FREE SEXY girl or guy picture!!!!"

Down the bottom it says ($4 per SMS)

Now tell me, who is thick enough to pay $4 for a random picture of a girl when you can go on the internet and choose a girl of your choice for free. Or even, here's a hint, get a girl of your own to take a picture of and use as the background.

The only thing stupider than those are the horoscope ones. Pay $4 for some a-hole's vague opinion on how your day might be. Once again, you can get free horoscopes in newspapers or online if you're that desperate.

Quite clearly, these ads are just major rip-off scams playing themselves to stupid people. They should be pulled from TV.

Quoted from The_Orichalcon

What annoys me are those late night SMS ads. You have to wonder who is stupid enough to actually text these things.

me too! I hate them so. And those "talk to a hot girl now" ads. they arent even sexy people in the adverts! Not worth $4 a call for anyways. imo.

The Proactive one annoys me also. and the other one.. the victoria principal one. or is that proactive? I forget.

and then there are the "Dating website" ones. like we all have to be desperate and dateless if we are awake after midnight.  

Nothing gets me to turn the tv off faster than those ads.

I wish the stations would wake up and recognise that not everyone is asleep in their beds at 1am and its not just the night owls that are awake. There are plenty of shift workers and other people who are up at that time of the night and what do they get? three stations of infomercials. Bad ones at that!

Quoted from The_Orichalcon

Now tell me, who is thick enough to pay $4 for a random picture of a girl

But that's just it - there must be enough people out there using these text message services or buying those lousy,crappy products from infomercials to make them financially attractive enough to keep making those ads and playing them on tv

I wonder just how much the stations charge for those ads, or whether there's some sort of percentage take on profits or the stations have some ownership of those businesses maybe

Late night infomericals are a pain. Movies or repeated episodes of shows would do a better job. We have all seen how well a knife can cut through a shoe and how easy you can look like a supermodel....but there needs to be something better.

bump

Never watch it and never will.

What really annoys me is when the infomercials are not on late at night. On Southern Cross Ten in Sth NSW there is an infomercial on every weekday at 3pm for half an hour instead of Judge Judy. Give me Judge Judy any day!

I missed the good old Judge in Cairns. I was annoyed she wan't on

I agree, particularly when I need to get up at around 3am every morning for around 30 days to have breakfast before sunrise as I've been fasting. It's really annoying to turn the TV on to watch these pathetic informercials. The other night I was so bored, that the only show that I found enjoyable was Quizmania. Boy, what a pathetic show lol.

Technically, it's also more expensive for stations to air reruns of TV shows as they'd probably need to pay a small sum in royalties, and they probably think it's just not worth it considering the miniscule audience share between 2am and 5am.

And Australia's not the only country to play these damn infomercials either. When I went overseas, I've noticed quite a few commercial TV stations playing very similar infomercials. The most common one being the "Ab Swing".