People? Who Needs People? The Sexiest Man Alive issue of People magazine took direct marketing’s name in vain. The recent “special double issue” dedicated to male beauty included two mentions of DM.
One reference came in an article called “Millionaire Makeover!” The piece covers six winners of WABC’s “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” after a fashion stylist reworked their wardrobes.
Winning contestant John Carpenter confessed to the Time Inc. publication: “I’m always looking at catalogs, thinking – I like that and I like that – then I put them down and forget.”
That absent-minded preference may or may not explain why stylist April Johnson’s makeover for Carpenter included vest, pants and oilskin coat from cataloger J.Crew.
That gentle credit is quite a contrast to the bitter letter in People’s Mailbag. Reacting to an article in a previous issue about Ron Popeil [inventor of the Showtime Rotisserie and other products sold through infomercials], Anne Fuhman wrote: “When you published your four-page article on Ron Popeil, was any research done as to what customers think of his products?”
Fuhman claimed it took a total of 10 hours on the telephone over seven months to get a replacement for a rotisserie she bought after seeing a Popeil infomercial.
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