Vitamix made what is considered the first infomercial, and needed 18 sales to break even.
In 1949 Bill Barnard, who had just bought his first television set, talked his father, “Papa” Barnard, a can-opener salesman turned health-food preacher, into buying a half hour on WEWS, Ohio’s first television station. They needed 18 sales to break even. Papa ground whole foods on live television, and the phones rang until half past four the next morning. They sold more than 400 machines that night.
Vitamix on Brandseum