ShopNBC And Ed Hardy: A New Low

Like a Reese Cup of feces, The Guy Fieri of homeshopping tv provided a sneak peak of Ed Hardy watches on ShopNBC last night. This begs the question: what the hell are the buyers thinking?

To listen to Babe the Blue Skelton, you’d think that Ed Hardy is the height of fashion and in demand. Which flys in the face of reality – just take a walk around your local TJ Maxx and see the racks upon racks of unsold wack.

The only person I ever see wearing this shit is Jon Gosslin and I’d hardly consider him the arbiter of cool.

The watches are as awful as the t-shirts, hoodies, remote control helicopters, dildos, tampons and hand sanitizer. They exude cheapness which is evident when you examine them in the jewelry case at TJ Maxx where they are priced between $50.00 and $99.00. Compare this to the SNBC prices well north of $100.

This sales move is faintly reminiscent of ShopNBCs attempt at selling Seiko a few dollars less than retail. I can remember Babe fondling the legendary Orange Monster for nearly twice what they were going for on the sales forum of any given messageboard.

Seiko had a handful of dedicated shows and I cannot tell you the last time I remember seeing any Seiko product for sale. One can only hope that Ed Hardy watches are around for even a shorter amount of time.

I do admit that Skelton selling this crap is a perfect fit. He’s a cornball and I could see him wearing these horrible designs. That’s synergy!

Mink v. Temple?

IS it me or is there a noticable tension between Daniel Mink and Tim Temple? Temple keeps heaping praise on the Renato timepieces but Mink keeps making snarky comments and one wonders where Daniel’s comment regarding being nice because you “never know when your paths may cross again” is directed.

Might the two have a history? It’s quite possible that Mink could have approached JTV or even Shop At Home? It is conceivable that Mink approached other networks after Renato “left” ShopNBC? Could it have been Mr. Temple that derailed any deal? I suspect that the JTV team would have been reluctant to work with Renato because of the complaints from consumers of the diamond quality and clarity, as well as the questionable origin of some timepieces presented as Swiss Made.

A pattern that I’ve noticed with callers is that they are clearly Camp Jim or Camp Tim. I also notice that Tim Temple never makes any mention of Jim Skelton; instead referring to the period that Skelton took over as “The Watch Program”. Correct me if I am wrong, but I have yet to hear Jim Skelton say Tim’s name or Temple saying Jim’s name.

And did you hear John from Texas? Renato watches gave him the will to live?!