Originally Posted 4/19/06
Well after weeks of watching, I thought I should chime in on the American Inventor escapade. Additionally since I will be commenting a lot on last weeks double episode, I figured I should post it before this week’s episode airs (sorry I’ve been a bit busy this week). Sadly, I have become a bit disillusioned with the whole thing – the idea seemed really cool – but the reality has proven to be less then spectacular. As Kurt has already commented on the producers do not seem to really be concerned as to whether the “inventions” are truly novel or can be protected. While you do not need a patent to sell a product in the market place, you need one if you want to prevent competition from coming in and selling the exact same product. If I was going to pay someone a $1,000,000.00 advance on royalties, I would make damn sure that no one else was going to be able to copy the product 6 months after we go to market. In fact, the #1 watchers of American Inventor should be R&D people for major corporations – I’d be looking for ideas that we could pick off (because they are not eligible for protection, or they are not protected) and flood the market with the goods as soon as possible.
The second and possibly most annoying aspect of the show is that it has degraded into this whine fest about which contestant has the best sob story to tell. After watching the 1 minute presentations and then the personal statements I was about ready to chuck my TV out of the window! I mean come on – is this what America has degraded into – that these people believe that they should be the winner not because their invention will revolutionize the world, save lives, or make life truly better for people– but because they are penniless and all they have left is a dream?! These people don’t need to win – they need counseling – or possibly My Therapy Buddy!!! I have to tell you folks but thousands and thousands of people are in the same boat. Over 80% of all businesses fail in their first year and you can bet your house that all of those people gave it everything they had. Probably 1 in 4 of the companies I form for clients in a given year will go belly up by the end of that year. Tons of people out there put everything on the line and loose. Did anyone notice that 25% of the semifinalists were essentially destitute – one lady even brought in her last unemployment check! This pandering to the lowest common denominator is not what I expected when I first heard of the concept for the show.
The other interesting observation is that the inventors were really lousy at relaying why their product should be chosen as the best or would be the most successful in the market place. The most common answer was – “Because I believe in it”. Great, you believe in your product – so does everybody else who stood in line for hours trying to get onto the freaking show! How about providing basic market information concerning the industry your product is in – how many kids across the US play football and what is the dollar amount spent on football equipment each year, what’s the umbrella market doing these days, or on average how many women that have breast cancer actually loose their hair (and no its not all of them) and end up wearing wigs.
But I guess there is always hope. Hope that the contestants will get their acts together and stop playing the charity case, hope that the producers will give us a more in depth look at the process instead of the superficial crap we have been fed so far, and hope that America hasn’t degraded into a society that is just looking for a handout based on the best sob story. There’s always hope – but I’m not holding my breath. Call me cynical.
