I have a weakness for really great pitchmen. I love the inspired con artist on the street corner urging passersby to find the queen in the three-card shuffle; the woman selling cookware at a county fair who keeps the spiel rolling while she slices, shreds, boils and otherwise destroys perfectly good food.

I go to fairs and expos for the pitchmen. I have miracle polishes to make my wheel rims look like silver. I have a supply of magically absorbent sponges that suck up soda spills and doggy errors from rugs. I have a small jar of anti-fogging goo guaranteed to keep eyeglasses fog free.

I can be spellbound by a bible thumping evangelical preacher conjuring up images of hell and damnation like a modern day Jonathan Edwards.

Why do I buy that stuff or drop money in the collection plate? Because it seems only fair to repay an artist for his performance.

As wonderful as these masters of the pitch are, none of them can match the selling performance of the Greatest Pitchman in The World: Apple’s Steve Jobs. Jobs is the master of the laid back pitch.

I watched Jobs launch the iPad twice just for the pleasure of the pitch, slowly forgetting that what was being pitched was a big iPhone I couldn’t make a call on. I didn’t care… the pitch was just so neat.

A “pitch” is not just an advertising gimmick. The Geico Gecko is a wonderful advertising campaign, but it’s not a pitch. A pitch is word-driven, it’s a performance, a seamless oratorical flow. It is acting of the highest order, leading to belief. And now we will all want iPads.

Except the Fuhrer, who is very disappointed. (Click)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010 at 1:16 pm and is filed under arts, Politics. Tags for this post: 3 card monte, ad men, pitchmen, salesmen, soapbox speakers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.