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Because his ability to pitch products lives on.
Why is he on my TV yelling at me to buy some cell phone accessory called a "Jupiter Jack"?
Because his ability to pitch products lives on.
cocaine is a uva drug.
Because it's a great value.
Advertiser is attempting to get a return on their investment from the money they paid Billy to do the spot. 'Probably not the response you were looking for, though.
Ooh, is that the thing that tunes your phone to your radio so you can hear your phone in the car? I think I want that.
He's the Tupac Shakur of infomercials.
they already replaced him on oxyclean
He already had some new products/commercials in the pipeline when he kicked over. The family decided to go ahead and run them (for the money, obviously).
those were all "his" products that he had bought the rights too...he wasn't being paid by the manufacturer.
During the spring / summer the Discovery Channel ran a show called "Pitchmen" featuring Billy Mays and Anthony Sullivan. During one of the episodes they showed them shooting the commercial for the Jupiter Jack. So the filming was done months before his death. His family decided to air such episodes for money as somebody already mentioned.
CosmicCowboy, according to this article and a couple of other articles, AJ Khubani's (CEO) Telebrands actually owns the Jupiter Jack (formerly Black Jack), based on the enthusiastic recommendation by Billy Mays, key business associate, pitchman and close friend. Billy was the CEO of Mays Promotions, Inc.. so, I don't believe Billy bought the rights to it, unless you know something about a later transaction. Telebrands still lists the Jupiter Jack as one of their products on their website.
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/b...elebrands-mays
Businessman has 'as seen on TV' dream come true
Hands-free device is final commercial by the late pitchman Billy Mays.
Jan Norman
Register writer
[email protected] Comments 0| Recommend 4
Jason Bobb got his first taste of electronics when he worked for The Good Guys home electronics retail chain after high school.
He was good at sales and had an affinity for electronics and mobile phones, finally starting a distributorship, Pacific Cellular Supply in Huntington Beach, to sell cell phone accessories – "everything but the phone" – at the age of 25.
He had all sorts of ideas for new products but never did anything with them until a friend who was dying of cancer urged Bobb to pursue his invention dreams.
That encouragement has led Bobb to a chance at national exposure for one product, and his experience should encourage garage inventors not to give up on their ideas.
Bobb had a hands-free device that plugged into his iPod to play its music over his car radio. "When I went to my suppliers to get such a transmitter for a cell phone they said there was nothing out there," he said.
With a limited budget and no electronic skills, Bobb didn't do anything with the idea until he met Peter Lee, a businessman in the same complex where Bobb was expanding his warehouse. Lee was an engineer who made products for the hearing impaired. When he heard Bobb's idea, he built a sample that worked in less than two weeks.
Bobb named it the Black Jack and sold several thousand units over the Internet.
A friend told Bobb he should make an infomercial about the product, and then through an infomercial producer, Bobb got an opportunity in March to pitch his device to TeleBrands, the 800-pound gorilla of the "As Seen On TV" direct marketing industry. Perhaps its biggest success is the Ped Egg, a pedicure foot file that has sold more than 25 million units.
The Discovery Channel was making a show about TV pitchmen, including Billy Mays, who died suddenly June 28. If you watch TV you, no doubt, have seen Billy Mays' commercials countless times. Think OxyClean and Orange Glo cleansers.
Bobb's product would at least get a little exposure on the Discovery show, and if he wowed TeleBrands founder A.J. Khubani and the pitchmen, they might strike a licensing agreement to promote the device.
"It was set up like 'American Idol' so if you won, they'd promote your product," Bobb said.
The Discovery Channel was taping at TeleBrands in New Jersey, so Bobb took a red eye flight to New Jersey. With just a half-hour of sleep, Bobb cooled his heels in the lobby for hours, chatting with others including Khubani's wife.
"I actually met Billy Mays in the bathroom. He was wiping cream cheese off his beard," Bobb said.
The wait helped relax him. Either that or he was too tired to be nervous.
"Billy Mays flipped over it," Khubani said in a phone interview. "I liked it but we took it on based on his enthusiasm."
Bobb's product – which Telebrands renamed the Jupiter Jack – was Billy Mays' final commercial before his death.
Khubani was pragmatic. "If we can lower the price to $19.95, we can do a deal." (Bobb has been selling the unit for $39.95 as an alternative to Bluetooth devices at $80+.) He won't disclose the details of this license but said typically a consumer product get a 1 percent to 10 percent royalty.
Bobb said, "I had no strength left to say yes. I just shook his hand."
Khubani moves quickly because most consumer products have a very short window before copycats appear. He likes to have his products to market within two or three weeks.
He said he actually spent several months on Bobb's device, changing the name to Jupiter Jack and dealing with patent issues. TeleBrands also improved the product and changed it to play on FM frequency 99.3 or 101.3. Research indicated these are the least used frequencies in the United States. Bobb had originally set it to play on the 88.7 frequency which is heavily used by actual broadcast stations.
TeleBrands, which test markets everything, found that the response to the Mays' commercial declined after his death, so it made another commercial without a pitchman. "It didn't feel right using a different pitch person," Khubani said.
The Jupiter Jack commercials started airing in July and the product will be shipped soon to retail stores such as Radio Shack, Target, Bed Bath and Beyond, Walmart and CVS, Khubani said. Initial orders exceed 1 million.
A lot of inventors have contacted Bobb about his success with Jupiter Jack. "The idea is to make money. If your product solves a problem for just a few people, it won't sell enough. So you want to solve a problem for many, many people and be able to demonstrate your product."
Contact the writer: 714-796-7927 or [email protected]
Oops, you are correct. I had read an article about him (before he died) that said after the success he had had with promoting Church and Dwights products (Oxi Clean and Orange Glo) he was looking for his "own" products to promote...I thought this was one of them.
Last edited by CosmicCowboy; 10-19-2009 at 12:57 PM.
No worries, I learned something, too.
Ahh. I tottally feel this way.
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