elines for infomercial producers. Also, as more respected brand name marketers engage in infomercial production, raising the standards of the industry, there have been fewer fraudulent product claims ("Wild Pitches" 10).
The infomercial industry is one of the fastest growing in advertising history. Established a little over a decade ago, estimates of the size of this industry range between $1.5 billion to $4 billion (Whitelaw 43; Hanson 1). More than 500 infomercials were produced in 1995 alone (Whitelaw 43).
Infomercials are increasingly becoming part of mainstream popular culture. The growth of the infomercial industry is due to the acceptance of this form of advertising by the American public. Far from viewing infomercials with distaste, viewers acknowledge the need for such programming to help them understand the complexities of various products on the market.
One of the advantages of infomercials for marketers is that people who watch do so out of conscious choice. With a traditional commercial sandwiched in between regular programming, the risk is great that the viewer will walk away, exercise the "mute" feature on his or her remote control, or simply ignore. In contrast, infomercial viewers give their full attention and are poised to buy. The NIMA estimates that more than three-quarters of Americans watch infomercials. In 1994, only 19 percent of infomercial viewers actually bought products, by 1995 this percentage had increased to 30 percent (Hanson 2).
The growing appeal of infomercials is due, in part to the trend toward celebrity endorsements. In the early days of infomercials, the product spokesperson was likely to be a former celebrity, struggling to maintain a degree of notoriety. Today, bonafide cel
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