Ig Nobel Prize-winning inventor Ron Popeil was profiled in the year 2000 by the inventive writer Malcolm Gladwell. (Thanks to Pagan Kennedy for bringing this to our attention.)
Popeil was awarded the 1993 Ig Nobel Prize in the field of consumer engineering, for redefining the industrial revolution with such devices as the Veg-O-Matic, the Pocket Fisherman, Mr. Microphone, and the Inside-the-Shell Egg Scrambler. [REFERENCE: his book The Salesman of the Century : Inventing, Marketing, and Selling on TV: How I Did It and How You Can Too!, which was also made available in audio form with Mr. Popeil doing the reading.]
Here are some of Mr. Popeil’s best-known television commercials: