John's Blog

The recent passing of NYC pitchman Joe Ades as noted in a recent NY Times piece His Stage, the Street; His Rapier, a Peeler :

Somehow, Joe Ades got people’s attention as the crowds swirled by at the Union Square Greenmarket, on their way to eyeing and buying the produce. He was the white-haired man with the British accent, the expensive European suits and shirts — the man selling the $5 peeler. For carrots. Or potatoes....

His was a particular kind of street theater in a city that delights in in-your-face characters who are, and are not, what they seem. For he was the sidewalk pitchman with the Upper East Side apartment. The sidewalk pitchman who was a regular at expensive East Side restaurants, where no one believed his answer to the “So what do you do?” question: “I sell potato peelers on the street.”

His old-world sophistication stands in stark contrast to the "in your face" style personified by pitchman Billy Mays. And don't even get me started on the ShamWow guy! But a Flickr group has popped up to honor the Gentleman Peeler.

However this NSFW re-dubbing of the Billy Mays Gopher commercial offers a version that's much easier for me to take:

Tags: advertising, selling, hawking, commercials, pop-culture