I wish some publication like The New Yorker or The Atlantic would research this —- where are the flashlights being made in China, who makes them, and how do they get to distribution in the US under so many different names and claims? Is it resellers being offered them dirt cheap who paste the names and claims on? Or is it some middleman who batches them up in this misleading fashion and finds fools to sell them?
saw the atomic “as seen on tv” light at rite aid today.
couple of folks looking at them.
they put them back on the shelf when i told them they were a $6 light with slick marketing.
the manager said oh really?
showed him one i bookmarked on my phone.
then told the group to visit this site.
didnt tell them they may very well spend more than $29.99 after they look around here a bit!
They’ve been at my rite aid in Mississippi for a few months at least. They have two versions right next to each other the atomic one and a bell and Howell version. But they are only 19.99 here in the as seen on TV display endcap
LOL. Next they’ll show up in your dreams. pilotdog68 flying along on a beautiful summer day. All of a sudden a Tacytaclumatrust is eating the plane. Wakes up… Ahhhh, just a bad dream.
Saw this advert on Australian tv, it ran for nearly 30 minutes and just repeated the same thing over and over. I think the price was $29.9x + $9.9x P&H, with the 2nd for just added shipping :person_facepalming:
I’ve seen this guy, Hunter Ellis…As well as the guy you mentioned, Nick Bolton…
Both peddling different brands of this crap………… :person_facepalming:
And like you said ‘red72vw’…. Hunter Ellis peddling the TacLight now tells us they are 19.95, free shipping and a second light for only a “handling” charge. (whatever that is)…. At least that is the latest commercial I saw 3 days ago.
excerpt fromThe Atomic Beam by Joe Posnanski
(click the link and read the whole thing )
…
“So you have the mostly worthless product. Check. What you need is a big opening.
Scene 1: Atomic bomb goes off.
Um, what?
Announcer: “The atomic bomb is one of the most powerful forces on earth.”
I’m sorry. What?
Announcer: The Atomic Beam is one of the most powerful flashlights on earth.
If the thing stopped right here — we are only seven seconds into it — we would already have one of the greatest infocos in the history of mankind. Let’s stop for just a moment to admire this so obvious comparison between one of earth’s most destructive weapons and a flashlight. These people were in room somewhere trying to come up with a name for their super-snazzy new flashlight. The Smashlight! The Shaq-O-Lantern! The Cosmic Fireball!
And finally one of the geniuses says: “The Atomic Beam.” And everyone loves it because, you know, it sounds like atomic bomb, and before those two atomic bombs in Japan killed 200,000 or so people, they definitely flashed a great deal of light. So yes! The Atomic Beam!
But when it was time for the commercial, and someone undoubtedly said: “You know, I’m not sure everyone will get the Atomic Beam connection to the atomic bomb. Sure they SOUND alike. But I think the comparison go over some people’s heads.” And the others kind of nodded, thought aboiut it for a long time. What could be done to make sure everyone understood that this flashlight was kind of like the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Then someone said: “Do you think we can get some atomic bomb testing footage?”