Consumer Reports finds products advertised in infomercials to be lackluster
Infomercials “move about $100 billion worth of products per year,” according to the senior editor of Consumer Reports, Jeff Blyskal. But that hardly means you should allow yourself to be lured in by the hokey pitches. The product-testers at the magazine put 15 of the most familiar “as-seen-on-tv” products through their paces and found that “only one or two were a good or great deal,” says Blyskal. Among the flops were the Snuggie, which shed when washed and tended to leave testers’ “backsides uncovered,” the ShamWow, whose only real use was “drying a wet dog,” and the Slap Chop, which chopped “unevenly” and was hard on the hands. The only decent deals were on the Ped Egg foot file and the Magic Jack phone device.