Well, not exactly. Ross Perot ran the first political infomercial back in 1992, when he ran for president on his Reform Party ticket. At the time, conventional wisdom said that a half-hour presentation by a talking head would drive away viewers, leaving his message, and campaign money, wasted. Instead, his low-budget presentations, given with charts and graphs and peppered with Americana-infused humor garnered some of the highest ratings in television, even drawing more viewers than popular sitcoms. more ›