Dan Albert's job as executive media director for ad agency Marc USA is to place client's commercials in front of a carefully targeted audience. In the past six months, it's been getting harder.

Paid programs selling Fabulous! jewelry, Amazing!! fitness equipment, Miraculous!!! nutritional supplements and other gadgets have bought up more cable time as the economy slams traditional marketing budgets and cable channels calculate that there is money to be made in infomercials.

"We can't get enough daytime spots," said Mr. Albert, who buys advertising time for clients such as Moen faucets and True Value hardware stores.

Meanwhile, Bill McAlister's job has been getting easier. He's president of direct response and product sourcing for Trevose, Pa.-based Media Enterprises Inc., which markets products such as Mighty Putty and Pasta Pro.

Commercial time that would have been too expensive before the recession is now affordable. Direct response advertisers have been able to snap up two-minute spots on the "Today" show and "Oprah" and other major shows. "That's never happened until the last eight or nine months," he said.

The higher profile exposure could push the company's sales up 10 to 20 percent this year, Mr. McAlister said. "It's great. For us, it's a bonanza."

The recession has opportunity written all over it for practitioners of direct response advertising, which is designed to speak directly to a consumer and get a specific response. Most people recognize it for its use in selling gadgets or products meant to solve some problem of daily life and available through either "operators standing by" or "fine retailers near you."

Ad spending in the direct response product category rose 9.2 percent to $2.58 billion last year, according to The Nielsen Co. Five years ago, the category accounted for less than $2 billion in spending.

Those numbers do not include long-form infomercials, just shorter ads ranging from 15 seconds to a couple of minutes that run during TV shows, according to a Nielsen spokesman.

The media research firm calculated that Video Professor ad spending last year rose 389 percent, Allstar Marketing's push for products such as Snuggies and Bendaroos rose 318 percent, and Rosetta Stone advertising was up 73 percent.

By comparison, total U.S. ad spending for the year dropped 2.6 percent with Procter & Gamble's number down 19.3 percent and General Motors' down 14.9 percent, according to Nielsen's calculations.

Prices for commercial time are based on supply and demand. When the big advertisers such as Detroit automakers cut back, Mr. Albert said the cost of some TV slots dropped at least 5 to 10 percent and others fell as much as 20 percent.

The direct response style of advertising is so familiar and has been around so long, it almost could be considered a folk tradition. For decades, county fairs and boardwalks were used as stages for salesmen who put on a show to demonstrate products. If they sold enough items to pay the cost of the booth, it was a success.

Television expanded the audience and turned some players into household names. Earlier this year the Discovery Channel began a "Pitchmen" reality show starring two well-known practitioners of the art -- Billy Mays, a McKees Rocks native, and Anthony Sullivan -- looking for products to sell using the same techniques.

Mr. McAlister and his company have been involved in the series and has shown up on a couple episodes.

He started in the business almost 30 years ago, long enough to remember when infomercial producers bought up post-midnight airtime that had long been filled by white noise. It was really, really cheap. Sometimes selling one gadget was enough to cover the TV costs.

People up that late didn't have anything else to watch so they stuck around if the pitch was good.

Part of the charm in direct response marketing is the products. Visitors to the Andy Warhol Museum on the North Side a few months ago got to see a pop-art tribute to memorable merchandise such as the Popeil Pocket Fisherman and Veg-O-Matic.

"It was fun to watch people's eyes widen and grin as they pointed and said, 'Remember that?'" wrote Tim Samuelson in an e-mail response to a query about the exhibition that featured his collection of products and TV commercials from famed direct marketing companies Chicago-based Popeil Brothers and Ronco Co., now based in California.

Just as mesmerizing -- if done well -- is the actual pitch.

Mr. Samuelson, author of the book, "But Wait! There's More: The Irresistible Appeal and Spiel of Ronco and Popeil," wrote up a description of the key steps of a direct response ad -- a system that anyone who bought a ShamWow ("You'll say Wow Everytime!) cloth might recognize.

Among the instructions: Start with an attention-getting opening statement, make the product sound indispensable and ask questions that get the audience to react. The salesperson can not be afraid to use superlatives with emphasis: "Isn't that amazing!?!"

Mr. Samuelson admitted to counting off the steps as he watches infomercials. "If the pitch is especially good, I've been known to occasionally cheer them on, as if watching the home sports team," he said.

A mix of appalled fascination and genuine appreciation reflects the feelings many have about direct response advertising. Marc USA, headquartered at Station Square, generally doesn't make that genre of ad.

Twenty years ago, he said such advertising was seen as the low-class cousin to more sophisticated brand marketing. "I think it has dusted itself off. It's more professional. It's not as cheesy," Mr. Albert said.

Mr. McAlister, who thinks direct response is still looked down on in some circles, said the opportunity to buy two minutes on a CBS or NBC daytime show has furthered the fine-tuning of the pitches.

He said his company has it down to a system that explains a product quickly and makes its case effectively. Superlatives are still OK but they are not enough, he instructed. "You have to show, 'Amazing!'"

Inventors send him hundreds of products annually in hopes that Media Enterprises will decide to market them but only a few pass the legal hoops as well as meet the requirements of being a demonstrable solution to a problem.

An advantage of marketing such products is the quick turnaround. Procter & Gamble might spent years testing a new laundry detergent and then carefully plot a multi-million dollar campaign involving magazine, TV, Internet and in-store advertising.

But, for a new direct response product, once a small group of people decide it's worth making, it can be ready to sell within two to three months, Mr. McAlister said. That allows the marketers to find products that will resonate with the moment. In a recession, that might be a $19.99 do-it-yourself home improvement tool or a $29.99 device for gardeners.

Once the products and plan are in place, media buyers will start picking up small amounts of TV time on different networks to see where the right audience is and then -- based on consumer purchases -- buy more time on the most effective channels.

At the peak of the pitch, the targeted audience might find it hard to avoid the message. "We're on 100 to 150 times a day," Mr. McAlister said.

Direct response isn't right for every product, he said, offering the example of a laundry detergent that people buy again and again and again. The goal there is to build trust and familiarity rather than gotta-have-it excitement.

Like the media buyers at Marc advertising, Mr. McAlister said his staff, too, is subject to the competitive swings of finding good airtime.

For the past few weeks, he said slots have been very tight, in part because NutriSystems bought up big chunks of time. He expects things to ease up a bit in June.

The days of cheap TV time won't last forever. If the economy improves and more marketers start jockeying for slots, prices will rise.

That probably will mean products like the Snuggie ("The blanket with sleeves!") and the PedEgg ("revolutionary foot file") will be seen less on the highest rated shows.

But they won't go away. In these days of hundreds of cable channels with hours of time to fill, there always will be room for the next thrilling pitch for the next great gadget.