Billy Mays, the Oxy-Clean guy, has died

[patricia]

Who will annoy us now??

[Pete C]

Take your pick.

[Milstead]

Didn't someone start a thread about wishing he got the plague in 2009?

That's some strong voodoo.

[Ron Thorne]

Patti and I saw a tv show about him, his company and son (Billy) just last week on the Discovery channel, and it changed our feeling about him as a person. That doesn't mean that we changed our view on how annoying those commercials were/are, however. He was an interesting, entrepreneurial guy with a quick wit who knew exactly what he was doing, and making bank all the while.



R.I.P., Billy Mays~



Pitchman Billy Mays Dead One Day After Bizarre Airplane Accident

By NewsWax | Jun 28, 2009

American pitchman and advertiser Billy Mays has died at the age of 50. Mays was probably most known for his catch phrase ‘Billy Mays here’ and the pitching of the multipurpose cleaning product OxiClean.

According to reports, Mays’ wife Deborah, found him unresponsive Sunday morning their home located in Tampa, Florida. The cause of death is not yet known, but authorities say they do not believe foul play was involved.

“Although Billy lived a public life, we don’t anticipate making any public statements over the next couple of days. Our family asks that you respect our privacy during these difficult times,” said Deborah Mays in a statement to the press.

Mays recently began co-starring in a television show on the Discovery Channel called Pitchmen. Mays, along with English advertiser Anthony Sullivan starred in the show where they would ‘pitch’ several products. By the end of the show, two inventors would be selected and be given a chance at selling their product in masses.

Mays also pitched sales for several other products including furniture polish Orange Glo, Mighty Putty, the Gopher, Zorbeez, and the cleaning product Kaboom!.

BACKGROUNDER

William “Billy” D. Mays, Jr. (July 20, 1958 – June 28, 2009) was a television direct-response advertisement salesperson most notable for promoting OxiClean, Orange Glo, and other cleaning, home-based, and maintenance products. His distinctive beard and loud sales pitches made him a recognizable television presence.

Biography

Mays was born in McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania. After graduating from Sto-Rox High School in 1977, he began his career as a salesman on the Atlantic City boardwalk, selling the Washmatik portable washing device to passersby. Working alongside other pitchmen, he developed his style of salesmanship.

Mays later traveled to home shows, auto shows, and state fairs across the United States for a period of twelve years, selling various maintenance products and tools, including cleaning products and food choppers.

Rise to prominence

At a Pittsburgh home show in 1993, Mays struck up a friendship with rival salesman Max Appel, founder of Orange Glo International, a Denver-based manufacturer of cleaning products. He was then hired by the company to promote their line of cleaners, OxiClean, Orange Clean, Orange Glo, and Kaboom on the Home Shopping Network in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Customer response to Mays’ sales pitches were enthusiastic, with a sharp increase in sales after his first day on the network, although some reviews were poor. He is very well known for shouting in an abrasive manner during infomercials. For example, Washington Post staff writer Frank Ahrens called him “a full-volume pitchman, amped up like a candidate for a tranquilizer-gun takedown.”

Following the success of the Home Shopping Network campaign, a line of successful television commercials and infomercials for the products was produced, featuring Mays demonstrating the effectiveness of the products to viewers hands-on. He typically begins such commercials with: “Hi! Billy Mays here for [advertised product].” Their success led to OrangeGlo International being named among the top ten privately growing companies from 1999 to 2001 by Inc. magazine, and its eventual buyout by Church and Dwight. Appel credited Mays’ brilliant salesmanship for much of the company’s success.

Mays was the CEO and founder of Mays Promotions, Inc., based at his home in Odessa, Florida. His services as a pitchman became highly sought-after, and he appeared in commercials for many diverse “as seen on TV” products. Mays claimed to be an avid user of the products he promotes.

In December 2008, Mays began appearing in ads for ESPN’s online service, ESPN360. These ads were a slight departure for Mays as they were designed to be parodies of his and other infomercial cliches with Mays appearing to be doing a parody of himself. He also made a live appearance during the 2008 Champs Sports Bowl promoting ESPN’s and ABC’s January 1, 2009 bowl games.

Prior to his death, Mays resided in Florida in a $1.8 million home which was built in 2005.

In February 2009, Mays publicly challenged Offer “Vince” Shlomi, also known as “Vince Offer” to a “pitch-off” between their respective products, the Zorbeez and the Shamwow. Popular Mechanics compared the absorbancy of two towel products and declared Shamwow the clear winner.

On April 15, 2009, the Discovery Channel began airing Pitchmen, a documentary series that features Mays and Anthony Sullivan in their jobs in direct response marketing. On the June 10, 2009 episode it was revealed that Mays’ trademark blue shirt was the idea of fellow pitchman Sullivan before the OxiClean commercial shoot in 1999.

Mays and Sullivan appeared together on the June 23, 2009 episode of The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien.

More recently, the commercials for his products have become a popular internet meme, and have spawned countless video remixes.

Death

Mays was found dead by his wife in his Tampa, Florida home on June 28, 2009. The Associated Press reported that there were no indications that the house had been broken into, and that police did not suspect foul play.

According to Fox News, Mays had been aboard a US Airways flight that blew out its front tires as it landed at Tampa International Airport on June 27, the day before his death. None of the 138 passengers and five crew members were reported to be seriously injured immediately following the incident, but several passengers reported having bumps and bruises from falling objects. Mays told the local Tampa TV station that some of the objects “hit me on the head, but I got a hard head.” It is unclear whether Mays’ death was related to the incident.

source 1 source 2

• “Report: ‘Infomercial King’ Billy Mays Found Dead in Home“. Fox News Channel, June 28, 2009
• Associated Press “TV pitchman Billy Mays found dead at home“. Los Angeles Times, June 28, 2008

Part of this article is covered under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Creative Commons Attribution 2.5

[kedoane]

I'm still waiting for the person who schedules what airs locally on the TV station to call me back. I haven't seen Billy Mays on my channel for a while, but I want to make sure that his stuff is not airing now that he has died.

[Brian Olewnick]

Originally Posted by Milstead

Didn't someone start a thread about wishing he got the plague in 2009?

That's some strong voodoo.

I believe that was me.

YES!!!

[Brian Olewnick]

Fixed

Originally Posted by Ron Thorne

Mays was found dead by his wife in his Tampa, Florida home on June 28, 2009. The Associated Press reported that there were no indications that the house had been broken into, and that police did not suspect foul play but are investigating the possibility of plague.

[patricia]

I guess the bonk on the head when his plane made a rough landing may have had more of an effect than anyone thought when he mentioned it after the flight.
I commend him for making a successful career out of pitching household products, cannily putting not just the product, but his name out there.

I just saw his OxyClean ad a few minutes ago, so I guess his ad people are not as concerned about the possible lack of sensitivity as we might hope they could be.

I couldn't help thinking that "Vince" of Sham-Wow fame was on the same track, barely slowed down by the unfortunate occurance that landed him in hospital, along with his lady friend, blood everywhere.

[GoodSpeak]

Billy Mays kinda grew on you...you know, like a fungus.

But when he did those ESPN commercials, that softened my heart toward him: He seemed like a guy willing to poke fun at himself. As a result, I actually started to like the guy.

His career was really starting to take off....now this. Strangely enough, I'm going to miss those commercials Billy did. BTW, OxyClean really works. No shit. Anyway....


Rest in Peace, Billy.

[Ron Thorne]

Originally Posted by patricia

I guess the bonk on the head when his plane made a rough landing may have had more of an effect than anyone thought when he mentioned it after the flight.

My immediate thought, too. Remember Natasha Richardson?

[Dr Dave]

His death interferes with in-depth coverage of the Michael Jackson Event. Which interferes with the Farrah Fawcett Death Event. Which interferes with coverage of Obama's desire to revere the Bush Heritage of Secrecy in Government.

[patricia]

Originally Posted by Dr Dave

His death interferes with in-depth coverage of the Michael Jackson Event. Which interferes with the Farrah Fawcett Death Event. Which interferes with coverage of Obama's desire to revere the Bush Heritage of Secrecy in Government.

Indeed.
Stuff keeps happening. You would think that fate would be more considerate of our attention spans and not overload our ability to take all this in at once.

[Scott Dolan]

Originally Posted by Brian Olewnick

I believe that was me.

YES!!!

If only some of your luck would rub off on me.

My plague wishes were much more constructive and beneficial to mankind.

[clinthopson]

First Jackson and now Mays.

What will become of us?

[me wag]

How does one become a Billy Mays? Is it in the hand gesturing alone? Or do you have to spend decades honing your corporate suck-up abilities to the point where the only thing left for you to be is Billy Mays? I do so hope he had a protege so that we can enjoy his hand gesturing talents (perhaps) forever.

[larrycohen]

Originally Posted by me wag

How does one become a Billy Mays? Is it in the hand gesturing alone? Or do you have to spend decades honing your corporate suck-up abilities to the point where the only thing left for you to be is Billy Mays? I do so hope he had a protege so that we can enjoy his hand gesturing talents (perhaps) forever.

You can practice by not talking to anybody anymore, you can only scream at them.


Actually, as annoying as the commercials were, he probably was a good guy. It thought it was funny when he appeared in a skit on Leno's show. They interspersed his product pitching with the President's reactions at a press conference. At least he could have a sense of humor about himself.

[Peterdubya]

I can only hope this thread doesn't disintegrate into the mess that the Michael Jackson RIP thread has....

Although, Billy, also a controversial figure.....

Billy Mays, the burly, bearded television pitchman whose boisterous hawking of cleaning products made him a pop-culture icon, has died. He was 50.Tampa, Fla., police said Mays' wife found him unresponsive Sunday morning. A fire rescue crew pronounced him dead at 7:45 a.m. It was not immediately clear how he died. He said he was hit on the head when an airplane he was on made a rough landing Saturday, and his wife, Deborah Mays, told investigators he did not feel well before he went to bed about 10 p.m. that night.
There were no signs of a break-in at the home, and investigators do not suspect foul play, said Lt. Brian Dugan of the Tampa Police Dept., who wouldn't answer questions about how Mays' body was found because of the ongoing investigation. The coroner's office expects to have an autopsy done by Monday afternoon.
U.S. Airways confirmed that Mays was among the passengers on a flight that made a rough landing on Saturday afternoon at Tampa Intl. Airport, leaving debris on the runway after apparently blowing its front tires.
Tampa Bay's Fox television affiliate interviewed Mays afterward.
"All of a sudden as we hit you know it was just the hardest hit, all the things from the ceiling started dropping," MyFox Tampa Bay quoted him as saying. "It hit me on the head, but I got a hard head."
Tampa police spokeswoman Laura McElroy said linking Mays' death to the landing would "purely be speculation." She said Mays' family members didn't report any health issues with the pitchman but said he was due to have hip replacement surgery in the coming weeks.
U.S. Airways spokesman Jim Olson said there were no reports of serious injury due to the landing.
Born William Mays in McKees Rocks, Penn., Mays developed his style demonstrating knives, mops and other "As Seen on TV" gadgets on Atlantic City's boardwalk. For years he worked as a hired gun on the state fair and home show circuits, attracting crowds with his booming voice and genial manner.
AJ Khubani, founder and CEO of "As Seen on TV," said he first met Mays in the early 1990s when Mays was still pitching one of his early products, the Shammy absorbent cloth, at a trade fair. He said he most recently worked with Mays on the reality TV show "Pitchmen" on the Discovery Channel, which followed Mays and Anthony Sullivan in their marketing jobs.
"His innovative role and impact on the growth and wide acceptance of direct response television cannot be overestimated or easily replaced; he was truly one of a kind," Khubani said of Mays in a statement.
After meeting Orange Glo International founder Max Appel at a home show in Pittsburgh in the mid-1990s, Mays was recruited to demonstrate the environmentally friendly line of cleaning products on the St. Petersburg-based Home Shopping Network.
Commercials and informercials followed, anchored by the high-energy Mays showing how it's done while tossing out kitschy phrases like "Long live your laundry!"
His ubiquitousness and thumbs-up, in-your-face pitches won Mays plenty of fans for his commercials on a wide variety of products. People lined up at his personal appearances for autographed color glossies, and strangers stopped him in airports to chat about the products.
Mays liked to tell the story of giving bottles of OxiClean to the 300 guests at his wedding, and doing his ad spiel ("powered by the air we breathe!") on the dance floor at the reception. Visitors to his house typically got bottles of cleaner and housekeeping tips.
As part of "Pitchmen," Mays and Sullivan showed viewers new gadgets such as the Impact Gel shoe insert; the Tool Band-it, a magnetized armband that holds tools; and the Soft Buns portable seat cushion.
Mays was previously married to Dolores "Dee Dee" Mays.

[CraigP]

I believe the Shamwow guy is a suspect...

[lonely-at-the-top]

there is a B.M. R.I.P. already in the Alley(were it belongs)

[lonely-at-the-top]

....and I found it (but missed the right spot where to post my remark) or in Dolan's words: me dumbass

[lonely-at-the-top]

oops: I've been moved!
I am moved