Retailing.org

..."A capital ship for an ocean trip was the Walloping Window Blind." And I sometimes felt I was at the helm of it as I moderated a raucous panel discussion among media buyers and cable media vendors at ACCESS ERA on Sept. 11 in Las Vegas.

ANGLES CAMP, CA -- The Sierra Nevadas are a perfect backdrop as I reflect on the history of infomercials. Not the peaks and valleys so much as the striking parallels of earlier years. Nestled in the mountains just a few miles north of here is the town of Coloma, where the discovery of gleaming yellow nuggets sparked the California Gold Rush of 1849. Tens of thousands marched in from across the country and around the world-the dreamers, the adventurous, the avaricious-lured by visions of striking it rich or profiting from those who tried. The greatest voluntary migration in history not only put the Golden State on the world map, it also spurred expansion of the Wild West and ultimately helped spawn Hollywood and the Silicon Valley (among other dubious distinctions).

What do Chrysler, IBM and Mattel have in common with AT&T, Bank of America, State Farm Insurance and other Fortune 500 companies? And what distinction do they all share with leading brands around the world like Braun, Sony, Sega and T-Fal? In a word, infomercials.