Years have passed since you last saw one, yet you can still remember her voice.
Hi, Cathy Mitchell here!
You were a kid. It was late. You were supposed to be asleep. The television was on in the other room and something about the way she said it made you stop. Not the product. Not even the price. The way she meant it. Every single word.
You knew it was a sales pitch. On some level you always knew. But she was so committed to that pan, that gadget, that particular solution to a problem you didn’t know you had, that for thirty minutes it didn’t matter.
The Turbo Cooker was just a pan. The Amish Fireplace Surround was just a wooden box with a space heater inside.
The Fushigi Magic Gravity Ball was just a ball. But the way they showed it. The music. The slow motion. The look on the face of the person holding it like they were holding something sacred.
You believed. Not because you were stupid. Because they made it worth believing in.
That’s gone now.
At its peak the infomercial industry was worth between $200 and $300 billion. Late night cable gave it a home. Deregulation gave it airtime. Charismatic human beings gave it a soul. And the FCC required something that turned out to matter more than anyone realized at the time: disclosure. If it was paid advertising you had to say so. Right at the start. Before the demonstration. Before the testimonials. Before the three easy payments.
The infomercial was honest about what it was.
That honesty was part of the deal. You knew you were being sold to. The host knew you knew. And somehow that mutual understanding made the whole thing work. It was theater with a toll-free number at the bottom.
What replaced it doesn’t have the decency to tell you what it is.
Digital advertising spending hits $740 billion in 2026. Every dollar of that is chasing you somewhere. The shoe you looked at once. The mattress you googled at midnight. The thing you mentioned out loud near your phone and then saw in your feed the next morning. The sponsored post that looks exactly like your friend’s recommendation until you notice the small grey word that nobody reads.
41% of consumers say they are annoyed by internet advertising. That number feels low. 25% use ad blockers just to make it stop. 72% of consumers trust product reviews more than ads. 92% trust user-generated content more than brand-created ads.
The industry that replaced the infomercial is spending three quarters of a trillion dollars a year and the people it’s targeting don’t trust it and are actively trying to avoid it.
The infomercial never had that problem.
You didn’t need an ad blocker for Cathy Mitchell. You watched her. Voluntarily. At two in the morning. Because she was there and she believed in what she was selling and that belief was contagious in a way that an algorithm following you around the internet never will be.
A targeted ad knows what you searched for. It doesn’t know why. It doesn’t know that you looked up running shoes because your knees hurt and you’re scared about getting older and you just wanted to feel like you were doing something about it. It just shows you running shoes. Forever. On every website. Until you either buy them or feel vaguely pursued by something you can’t name.
Cathy Mitchell would have asked how your knees were doing.
This week QVC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Debt reduced from $6.6 billion to $1.3 billion. The press release called it a transformational growth strategy. It used the phrase “live social shopping” four times.
Live social shopping is the industry’s attempt to get the magic back. TikTok creators holding up products. Countdown clocks. Limited quantities. The urgency of the infomercial translated into a thirty second vertical video.
Sometimes it works. QVC acquired nearly one million new US customers on TikTok Shop in 2025. The format isn’t completely dead. The sincerity occasionally survives the compression.
But mostly what you get is a stranger holding a product they were paid to hold, reading from a script they were given that morning, performing enthusiasm for an algorithm that will show it to you whether you want to see it or not.
75% of Americans say they would trust AI shopping recommendations less if those results were sponsored. We already know when we’re being managed. We already know the difference between someone who believes and someone who was paid to say they believe.
We always knew. That was never the problem.
The problem is nobody is really believing anymore.
The Fushigi ball was just a ball.
You knew that too. Eventually. Probably before you finished watching.
But for those few minutes someone on television held it up to the light and treated it like it was something worth your complete attention and you gave it to them because the alternative was going to sleep and this was more interesting.
That’s not nothing.
That’s actually quite a lot.
And we traded it for a shoe that won’t stop following us home.
Sources
How Late-Night Infomercials Transformed Direct Sales | Slate
Digital Advertising Statistics 2026 | Digital Applied
2026 Marketing Statistics | HubSpot
Digital Advertising Statistics 2025 | Marketing LTB
Americans Say They Would Lose Trust in AI Shopping If Results Were Sponsored | Quad
QVC Group Starts Chapter 11 to Cut Debt | Stock Titan
QVC Group Plans to File for Bankruptcy | Philadelphia Inquirer
The Future of Advertising in 2026 | AdLeaks
Editorial Disclosure
This article is an original opinion piece prompted by the QVC Group Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing and expanded into a broader cultural argument about the decline of the infomercial format and its replacement by targeted digital advertising. No financial relationships exist with any company or advertising organization mentioned. Market data is drawn from Slate, Digital Applied, HubSpot, Marketing LTB, and Quad Research. Commentary reflects the author’s own assessment. The information provided on this website is for informational and educational purposes only. Our content is derived strictly from verified online sources to ensure accuracy and objectivity. This analysis does not constitute financial, investment, or professional advice. Readers are encouraged to consult with qualified professionals before making decisions based on this information. For more information, please see our full DISCLAIMER.
