What is a Huckster?
As the late comedian George Carlin once observed, if you nail two things together that have never been nailed together before, sooner or later someone will buy it. Most likely, the person who actually sells it would be considered a huckster. A huckster essentially sells products you don’t need for a problem you didn’t know you had, at a price you can’t afford. The reason you buy it anyway is the showmanship and seduction behind the sales pitch. A good huckster is a consummate salesman who can sell products and services to practically anyone. One prime example of a huckster at work can be found in advertising for radio and television. Hucksters may star in slickly produced infomercials, hawking anything from steam cleaners to miraculous laundry detergents to colon cleansing programs. They may use personal testimonials from satisfied customers, interviews with experts and live demonstrations to convince viewers to buy their products, preferably within the next thirty minutes. A huckster
