Q: I've been seeing a lot of casting calls for infomercials lately. What exactly is an infomercial, and how is it different from a regular commercial?
A: The infomercial is relatively new but it's a huge source of work in the entertainment industry for all types of performers. An infomercial is a program that exists to advertise and sell a specific product. They Before the mid 1980s, infomercials didn't exist. One of President Reagan's longest lasting policy decisions was to deregulate the television industry. This got rid of federal rules regulating how many minutes out of each televised hour could be devoted to commercials.
At the same time cable television was beginning to expand to a national audience, with dozens of new channels popping up. Most of these channels couldn't survive on traditional ad revenue, however, and many quickly disappeared. In the early days of cable, the most successful channels were 24-7 religious networks that were in place primarily to raise funds for churches, both legitimate and disreputable ones. These religious channels noticed that late night and early morning time slots were not very successful for fundraising, and many opened up those time periods to outside sources. Advertisers and hawkers of cheap product saw this unique opportunity, and without federal regulations they bought up the super-cheap late night cable timeslots and created the infomercial.
Many infomercials are 30 to 60 minutes long, and typically air late at night, early in the morning, or during low-priced daytime hours. Shorter ones are 60 to 120 seconds, and air during commercials during regular TV shows. They act like previews for full-length infomercials. Recent years have blurred these lines somewhat, with the creation of QVC, The Home Shopping Network, and now The Infomercial Channel. While QVC and The Home Shopping Network try to create a "bringing the mall to you" vibe, The Infomercial Channel just airs infomercials 24 hours a day as entertainment. This is just more evidence that infomercials have wormed their way into the national consciousness. These kinds of channels also provide many more opportunities for work in the infomercial sector.
The point of an infomercial is to keep the viewer tuned-in with the illusion that they're watching an entertainment program. The longer the viewer watches, the more likely he'll be to buy the product. Because of this it's critical for infomercials to be filled with compelling "real" personalities that convince them to keep watching. The trick is, of course, that infomercials are just about as "real" as most regular commercials are, and are just as carefully cast. The action tends to revolve around a few comfortable sets, features a lot of call backs to earlier phrases, and is based around the fulfillment of a product's promise. The activity is frequently broke up by "calls to action," which are urgent breakaways to remind the viewer what the price of the product is, and how he can order it.
Basically the infomercial is a specialized form of advertising that blends "real-life" testimonials with aspects of commercial and entertainment programming. More importantly, there are many job opportunities in infomercials for a wide variety of performers.
Break a Leg,
InstantCast
Have a question? Ask our experts!
