That was Billy Mays

For those of us in a television daze over the weekend the sight of infomercials starring the legendary pitchman Billy Mays might have seemed, well, a little weird. Didn't that guy just die? Well yeah he did, but only in real life - infomercials, it seems, last forever (as long as the orders keep coming). From the NYT:

Mr. Mays's mesmerizing infomercials -- for products like Mighty Putty ("Build, restore, repair!") and the Awesome Auger ("Take the hard work out of hard work") -- are being put back into commercial rotation, two weeks after he suddenly died at the age of 50. Mr. Mays's business associates say without hesitation that it's what he would have wanted.

[CUT]

Is it creepy to see Mr. Mays still shilling? Remy Stern, the author of a book about the infomercial industry titled "But, Wait ... There's More!," thinks so. But is it surprising? Not at all. "For the infomercial guys, any press is good press," Mr. Stern said. And already there are indications that the products Mr. Mays sold so convincingly are receiving a sales boost. "People are ordering," said Bill McAlister, the president of Media Enterprises, in an interview on Monday.

He claims an increase in sales "between 20 and 30 percent compared to before he died."