Company Blog

You’ve heard the old saying: “Opinions are like (an explicative used to refer to the last point of the digestive system, hereafter noted as AHs), everyone’s got one.”

However, while this notion may be physiologically true, when it comes to rendering opinions about As Seen On TV products, especially via online review websites (but not this one, of course, which doesn’t feature opinions, only “see for yourself” videos), a disproportionately high number of the people posting those opinions not only have AHs, but in many cases are AHs. This is what creates what is statistically known as the Disproportionally High Negative Sample (DHNS).

Think about it. When you buy a new product, whether that be at a store, online, or ordered via telephone, or even receive one as a gift, when you get that product, you rightfully expect it to do what it said it could do. And if it does it, you’re not surprised, because your expectation was that products should do what their vendors claim they can do. That’s how the vast majority of people think, and that’s normal.

Thus, it is exceedingly rare that someone loves a new product so much that they bother to take the time to go online and tell everyone else about it at various product review sites. It happens, sure, but the point is that it’s more rare than common. This is why a lot of positive praise you see on product review websites is either the purveyors of those products shilling for them, or what is statistically known as the Disproportionately Low Positive Sample (DLPS).

On the other hand, the world is full of AHs who like nothing more than to complain, bitch, piss & moan. For some people, pleasing them defies the laws of physics. Not going to happen. And they take each and every occasion possible to give voice to their displeasure and distain in any and all venues they can find—ergo, your DHNS. And this really is unfair to a lot of perfectly fine products.

For example, if a vendor of a product sells 100,000 units, and 99,998 of the people who bought one had no problem with it, and yet two AHs couldn’t figure it out, and they get pissed off, and go online to vent their spleens, and then people like you come along who are curious about that product, and you read a review that only has two entries posted, and both of those comments are negative—what conclusion do you come to about that particular product? You may be inclined to think it probably sucks, just like the two AHs said, but at the same time you’re oblivious to the 99,998 people who are currently enjoying that product. Who loses out on that deal? Not just that product’s vendor, but you!

So, obviously, if you can actually see a product in action for yourself—as you can here at ASOTVI (www.asotv.info)—that’s best case, but if you bother to simply read about products and just go to one of many consumer opinions websites, then in order to be fair and objective, you need to always keep in mind that a lot of the good that could be said about a product is very likely missing, and a lot of the bad you find just might be the byproduct of AHs (said byproduct being commonly rendered as yet another explicative).