Call now! Informercials thrive in bad economy

Who hasn't been tempted by the $19.99 price tag of some seemingly magical product hawked on an infomercial? As this economy has more Americans staying in and watching TV, infomercial shopping is on the rise.

This trend is also fueled by the drop in advertising prices, which allows Billy Mays, Vince Offer of ShamWow fame and other leading pitchmen to move from late-night to prime time. "We're able to buy that TV time at half the price we were paying last year, so we're able to afford to run a lot more tele-advertising," A.K Khubani, the president of the Fairfield, New Jersey-based Telebrands, explained to WPIX News. Telebrands are the marketers of the spinning pet manicuring file Pedi Paws, the foot-scrubbing PedEgg, and AmberVision sunglasses.

What's more, as infomercial superstar Billy Mays recently pointed out to the Newark Star-Ledger, these products are all about D.I.Y., which comes in handy in tough times. "I want to save customers money by selling products that, used in the right way, can help them do projects instead of calling a professional in," he said.