silenced

Billy Mays, the high energy infomercial pitchman is dead at 50.

For many, Mays was the annoying, high decible noise coming out of their television. For many, he was the reason to change the channel.

For me, he was the ultimate salesman, a salesman’s salesman. If you ever wanted to give a class in sales, he was the master.

Selling benefits of what he was pitching, by the end of his spiel, he had you believing you could improve your life, live longer, happier, cleaner, have perfect children, make your husband look like Brad Pitt, and make you look like Angelina Jolie with just three equal payments of 19.99, plus S & H.

Billy Mays was the voice of our times. He worked around typical retail selling methods, bringing products right to you, in your home, in your pajamas, while nobody else was looking. You didn't have to go to the store. You could buy it now.

If you could chop it, slice it, peel it, clean it, wax it, cook it, hide it, spray it, Billy could make you buy it. In fact, he was able to convince people to buy not millions, or tens of millions, or hundreds of millions, but over a billion dollars worth of stuff they never knew they needed until Billy told them they did.