Talk:Ginsu

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Votes for deletion[edit]

This page was recently nominated for deletion, and the consensus decision was to keep it, merge it with another article, and/or redirect it to another article. The deletion debate is archived here. ugen64 20:33, 26 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Discussion[edit]

What's the relevancy of all the stuff about the Miracle Painter? That, and the list of other products, should probably be cut.--Tellybelly 20:08, 24 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Arthur Schiff[edit]

Nothing about Arthur Schiff, the ad writer who came up with "Ginsu"? Ad writer who named the Ginsu knife dies -HiFiGuy 20:36, 4 September 2006 (UTC) It should be noted that the name Ginsu" was devised to possess a Japanese connotation, and the television commercials also promoted the suggestion that this was a product that was manufactured in Japan. Federal law prohibits the misrepresentation of a product's origin by words and/or utterances.[reply]

Knife?[edit]

This page doesn't say anything about the knife. Is it anything special? What kind of steel is it made of (how hard is it)? —Ben FrantzDale 16:14, 18 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

  • The knives are nothing special. And honestly, the only part of Ginsu that is noteworthy is its advertising, marketing and sales. --67.241.177.245 (talk) 06:55, 6 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The knives were originally manufactured by the Quikut Division of the Scott Fetzer company, best known for World Book Encyclopedia and Kirby Vacuum Cleaner Divisions. They were produced in Fremont Ohio in a single fully integrated manufacturing plant from polypropylene pellets and large coils of stainless steel. The Ginsu knives were essetially the same as the Quikut product except for the name stamped on the blades.

Once tested and compared to expensive gourmet, high quality cutlery by a well-noted consumer magazine, the knives were deemed to be slightly lower than the well-known brands selling for hundreds of dollars more, and the lowly paring knife was judged to be just as good despite costing about a dime or so to produce. Over a million Ginsu steak knives (in sets of four) were sold to Sears as a credit marketing promotion by Greer and Associates of Hayward California in the 1980's. When the television commercial for Ginsu was re-created on the David Horowitz TV show "Fight Back," it was concluded that the product would essentially perform just as represented by the infomercial. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.37.16.124 (talk) 21:31, 22 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Scott Fetzer Company has since been acquired by the Berkshire Hathaway Group. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.37.16.124 (talk) 21:33, 22 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

These knives do have a feature that at least puts them into a specific category of knife. There is absolutely no mention of this, the knives' available sets, variations, or anything else about them other than how they were marketed. This is very lacking. Note: I came to this article looking for the name of the type of blade it uses and am going away empty-handed. -- 97.94.196.110 (talk) 17:11, 29 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Rename: Ginsu Knife Infomercial[edit]

This article isn't really on the topic of the Ginsu knife but on its marketing on an infomercial. It is an excellent article on that topic and certainly deserves to be kept. The knife itself probably wouldn't deserve an article otherwise. User:RedHughs 63.24.0.30 07:16, 16 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Actually, I'd suggest renaming "Ginsu knife", then separate all of the article contents of everything not pertaining to the knife itself, and merge that into the Direct marketing topic. A significant part of this article is related to Infomercials/Direct Marketing. - KookyMan (talk) 06:41, 21 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I disagree. The knife line is certainly worthy of mention, as it is not only widely popular but also a significant development in production (a cheap knife with a quality blade).Phentos (talk) 06:23, 7 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I think the knife and infomercial each deserve their own article. I think it's embarrassing how the present version of this article doesn't discuss the knife at all. — NRen2k5(TALK), 16:19, 11 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

This article has been mentioned at the Wikipedia:Conflict of interest/Noticeboard[edit]

See the discussion at WP:COIN#Ginsu. An editor named User:Ginsuguy was added promotional language. Since he has not been active since 15 April, the complaint has been closed. Everyone who may be connected with the subject of an article is urged to carefully look at the Wikipedia:Conflict of interest guideline before editing. EdJohnston (talk) 13:15, 23 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Informal speech[edit]

Hasn't Ginsu become a kind of colloquial synonym for something (aprticulary a knife) very sharp and/or cutting of for someone who is good with knifes?--Baruch ben Alexander - ☠☢☣ 23:43, 31 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Infomercials and Cultural impact section[edit]

I'm not an expert in this field, so I'm not going to change the article — but — there are some things that seem questionable.

  1. The Veg-O-Matic came about a decade before Ginsu knives and used the same hard sell and infomercial techniques.
  2. The company Ronco used the hard sell / infomercial techniques to sell all their prodcuts in the 1960's and 1970's (not just for the Veg-O-Matic).

Anybody familiar with this stuff may want to update the article. Thanks. - Hydroxonium (H3O+) 22:50, 24 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Neutral POV?[edit]

The article hardly seems neutral in that it solely focuses on the advertisement techniques used to sell the product. It is probably important that this is one of the prototype products for the modern kind of infomercial advertising, but it seems overkill to make 90% of the article about it's aggressive selling style instead of manufacturer, product and other information outside of the tv marketing.

In comparison seemingly more important information like "where did the name finally come from" is missing, there are only two bits about how the company looked for a better name than Quikut and then the statement close to the end that the new name was made from whole cloth (i.e. fabricated not derived from any actual word). What lies in between those two points in time?

As it is this article reads like somebody had a grudge about the knifes being marketed the way they are and used the Wikipedia-keyword to air this grudge. That needs correction. --5.146.47.110 (talk) 17:44, 10 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

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External links modified[edit]

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The Quikut-Ginsu brand is 100 years old[edit]

The biggest problem with the Ginsu entry is it focused almost entirely on the Ginsu brand with only a brief mention of the brand and company that proceeded it - Douglas Quikut. Combined, the Quikut/Ginsu brand has been a major brand in the US and Canada for 100 years. From the mid 1920s on the advertising for the brands was everywhere. Maybe the entry title needs to be tweaked.

Also, Quikut then Ginsu led the way as give aways in grocery stores, and with products from P&G soap products to Kentucky Fried Chicken.

I see this entry much likes the Vitamix entry... important brands for a long time. And they fit right in with the Papa Bernard (Vitamix), Ron Popeil, Billy Mays and other TV marketers.

I took a shot at updating the entry.

I'm still checking to see if the motion picture studio (Cinecraft) and the ad agency behind the early Quikut TV spots (Foster & Davies Advertising in Cleveland) also did the spots/infomercials for Vitamix (the first infomercial), Alliance Tenna Rotor (a critical product before cable TV), and GE Christmas light bulbs. I know Foster & Davies worked on the advertising for these brands, the question is when. 75Portlewes (talk) 00:59, 2 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Unfortunately to date I haven't been able to link Foster & Davies ad agency to the first filmed for TV infomercial (1949 Vitamix) nor can I link for certain the ad agency to the early filmed Quikut TV commercials. I have found that the agency worked on both accounts ... the question is when and did they have a role in producing these historic "firsts" 75Portlewes (talk) 18:26, 6 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
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