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Some 60 new pitches debut every month, so demand is high for quality inventions people will actually buy. Or at least a clever item with a catchy name. (Yoga Booty Ballet, anyone?) Of the top 25 most-aired half-hour pitches in 2005, as ranked by the Infomercial Monitoring Service, 14 were for health and beauty products. Who doesn't want a better body in just three easy payments?
You may want to shop around for the best deal, though. These products have typically huge markups -- for instance, something sold on TV for "the low, low price" of $19.95 probably costs about $4 to make. And the advertised sticker price may not be the lowest. Many items bearing the As Seen on TV stamp are sold in stores and online, at sites like wonderfulbuys.com and drugstore.com. While comparison-shopping, we found prices varied by as much as half.
We bought 14 hot products and gave them the real-world road test, meaning Reader's Digest staffers took them home and tried them out. We ranked each item on the following scale:
Don't waste your money Works, but not well enough Good enough to buy Gotta have it! What lived up to its promise? Read on and find out.
*readersdigest.com extra*
OWL (Optical Wallet Light)
$10
Promise: Read small type, even in the dark with the OWL, an "amazing credit-card-sized magnifier" with a built-in "ultra-bright light." Fits right in your wallet or pocket, so it's "always handy" to light up menus, maps, keyholes "and more!"
Results: Baby boomers found this little guy "discreet" and helpful for reading menus in "restaurants with atmosphere." One almost universal complaint: not enough light to see clearly in darker settings. A reluctant bifocals wearer gave it three stars for the 3x magnification, but just one star for the light. "If it were brighter, it would be perfect." Other OWL examiners disliked that it's disposable -- once the light dies, you're left in the dark.
*readersdigest.com extra*
Titanium Turbo
$14.99
Promise: Titanium for the space-age head covering, Turbo for the power that "sweeps away hair at 8,000 strokes per minute." This men's shaver is "small and easy to handle, yet it performs like a full-size electric"-- "at a fraction of the price."
Results: Our male staffers gave this razor mixed reviews: one liked the "good, clean shave," but said the batteries ran out too quickly. Another liked the portability, so he took it on a weekend trip. Shaving early one morning, he decided it was "way too loud" and worried he'd wake up his host the whole time he Turbo-ed. And one guy couldn't get it to work on his whiskers at all. Consensus: the Titanium Turbo doesn't make the cut.
EverLife Flashlight
$19.95
Promise: "Never be stranded in the dark again!" This flashlight uses no batteries or bulbs. Just shake it for 30 seconds and it emits a "super bright" light that's "visible for up to one mile." It's waterproof and even floats.
Results: Testers universally complained that the EverLife was "too dim." And since those 30 seconds of shaking give you only 5 minutes of light, it was "tiresome" to keep recharging. "Maybe if King Kong is doing the shaking," you'd get a longer-lasting light, speculated one tester. Another, who has a more expensive brand, said his "gives a stronger, longer-lasting beam." So while the EverLife fell short of its promise that it's "the last flashlight you ever buy," we agreed it's a good backup in case of emergency.
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