I think that a lot of these late night 900 hotline ideas were based on the idea that people who are up at a late hour are somewhat vulnerable, inebriated, or mentally ill and these kinds of commercial would attract these demographics through stroking their paranoia and making them think, “that was nuts, I should call that and see what it means”
I assume this only because I worked for an As-Seen-On-TV type company during my college years, and many products were marketed on the notion that the product is 20 cents worth of plastic in a 15 cent package and the shipping costs approximately 40 cents and the handling costs are negligible because their workers are handling the product so quickly that the overall premarkup cost is like $1.25. You could sell their products for 19.95 or two for 29.95 and you are just bathing in cash. If the product is a bit of a dud, you can sell them at 2 or 3 for 19.95 any you are still making crazy money.
