“This year is the 20th anniversary of those ubiquitous 28-minute feature-length TV ads, better known as infomercials. Every year, men and mostly women shell out more than a billion dollars buying up stain eliminators, hair removers, veggie choppers, fat reducers and more. If you include short-form spot ads that drive people to stores searching for “As Seen on TV” products, gross revenue for such infomercials rose to $154.1 billion last year. That’s almost an 81 percent jump in just six years. Combine TV, radio and Internet retailing, and it’s a staggering $256 billion industry.”