Word: pitchmen
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Suddenly the discreetly worded ads are popping up everywhere. Starkly simple copper bracelets, the pitchmen proclaim, are now being worn in the very best of circles. Jet setters, film stars, top athletes and even a few sober members of the upper bourgeoisie have taken to the fad. Why? Though the ads say nothing about it, to avoid the laws against false and misleading advertising claims, the beautiful people are convinced that the copper bangles* will miraculously alleviate the pain of a variety of ailments, ranging from arthritis to sciatica to chronic backache...
...Hang-Up. The games get trickier in other courses. More than 55 companies have each paid a minimum $6,300 to send more than 10,000 salesmen through the 25-hour "professional selling skills" course. In small groups of six or so, the pitchmen analyze realistic, tape-recorded selling situations, then break off for "roleplay" sessions with "pretend" customers. The students soon overcome what Xerox's Ted Lee says is the salesmen's major hangup: "Most salesmen hate to ask for a final sales commitment because they are afraid of getting turned down...
Announcer's Voice Off-Screen: Problems? Wondering how to present your product to the consumer? (Executive nods sadly.) Let me introduce you to TV's newest and most popular pitchmen: the Homelies. They come in all misshapes and off-sizes. (CUT TO rapid sequence shots of Homelies' anatomies.) Bulbous noses! Flabby jowls! Weak chins! Retreating hairlines! Bloated waistlines! They've got everything! Everything that it takes to sell merchandise! Why? (Executive mouths words why, why, why.) Because they're real people! They're believable! They're your next-door neighbors, faces...
DIRECTIONS (ABC, 1-1:30 p.m.). The crassly commercial side of Christmas is sniped at in a play that finds Santa Claus bedeviled by consumer researchers and pitchmen...
...week with pitches for everything from insurance to home repairs. "Insults are useless," argued McDaniel. So, too, are unlisted numbers (now used by 20% of private subscribers in Los Angeles), he said, because they inconvenience friends, often cost more ($6 a year in New York) and still leave pitchmen able to get the number by renting a "reverse" (street) directory from the phone company...