The World According to Billy Mays

January 2, 2009 – 11:43 am by Savvy Shopper

We spend over 100 hours each week with our eyes glued to our three 24″ monitors, searching every nook and cranny of the Internets for news of Billy Mays to share with you, and still we missed this very insightful interview in Conde Nast Portfolio which ran sometime before Election Day 2008. In this interview with Lloyd Grove, with many questions more of interest to a business rather than a consumer audience, we learn many interesting tidbits about Billy and the world of DRTV, including the following:

• Billy Mays is a Republican who supported John McCain
• He really believes in each product he represents
• Sometimes he reimburses unhappy buyers from his own pocket
• His muscles get “real spasmed up around my butt”
• “The best things in life are free and $19.95.”
• Billy’s commercials are dubbed in 57 languages
• He writes most of his own copy
• His belief is that many of the people he annoys are the first to buy his products
• He’ll never change his approach, because “if it’s not broken don’t fix it.”
• The Billy Mays brand is based on trust
• All you Billy haters better look out, because you’re going to see a lot of him in the future. He just had hip replacement surgery and he feel so good that he wants to “work 10 years’ worth in the next five years.”