infomercial_production v1.0.0

name: "infomercial_production" description: "Produce long-form direct response video and home shopping segments: a timed segment map built in self-contained pods, demonstration pacing, an offer stack worksheet with exact pricing maths, testimonial placement, call to action repeats tied to new proof, and US compliance basics for paid programming disclosures, claims, testimonials and continuity offers. Triggers when someone is planning, scripting, producing or fixing an infomercial, a DRTV program, a paid programming slot, or a home shopping segment."

Infomercial Production

Purpose

Build a paid program that sells on proof, in the order a mid-program viewer can actually use it. The format has one structural fact: most viewers arrive partway through. So the program is built in pods, each one carrying a complete problem, demonstration and offer, with the paid advertisement disclosure placed where the rules require it and the price maths checked before anyone performs it. A render style or a host with energy does none of that work. This skill ships the segment map, the demo pacing rules, the offer stack worksheet and the compliance pass that make the program hold together.

Covered formats: the long-form program (typically a bought half hour slot), the two minute short form spot cut as its own complete offer, and the live home shopping segment. Scripted short sales videos for a web page belong to video sales letters. Live social commerce streams belong to live shopping streams. This skill owns the recorded paid program and the shopping channel segment.

Workflow

1. Lock the offer before the script. Fill assets/offer-stack-worksheet.md first: stack in reveal order with a real price basis per item, program price, installment maths, shipping, guarantee, and any trial or continuity terms in plain language. No worksheet, no script. A claim or a price that cannot be written on the worksheet does not go on air.

1. Build the claims log. List every objective claim the program will make, spoken, on screen or implied by a set, a costume or a before and after shot. Against each one, record the evidence held and its date. Evidence must exist before the claim is scripted. Health and efficacy claims need competent and reliable scientific evidence, not a happy customer. Cut any claim with no evidence row.

1. Map the program in pods. Start from assets/segment-map-template.csv and retime it to the bought slot. The shape: opening disclosure, cold open problem, demo and testimonial blocks alternating, a disclosure immediately before each offer pod, two offer pods carrying identical price and terms, closing disclosure. Each segment must stand on its own, because viewers tune in at any point and still need a complete presentation. Run python3 scripts/segment_map_check.py <map.csv> and fix every failure before the script is written against the map.

1. Write demos that prove in real time. Each demo block follows the five beats in references/segment-map-and-pacing.md: set the test fairly on camera, run the core action without cuts, show the result close and wide, name one honest limit, bridge to the next proof. If footage is sped up, swapped or assisted, disclose it on screen at that moment. Pace the block so the product is in motion early: features talk goes in the objection block, after proof, never before the first demo.

1. Place testimonials after the proof they support. A testimonial lands right after the demo of the job it talks about, not in a lump at the end. Use verified buyers only, with permission on file. Keep each one short and specific: the job, the prior frustration in one line, the result in their words. Results that are not typical trigger the disclosure in step 7, placed beside the testimonial, not in a credits crawl.

1. Write offer pods from the locked worksheet. Read the stack, the total price, the installment maths, shipping, the guarantee and the order action, word for word from the worksheet in both pods. Pod 2 may remind viewers of a bonus from pod 1. It may not change a price, a term or a deadline. Keep the phone number, URL or order keyword on screen for the whole pod.

1. Repeat the call to action on new information only. The order action repeats through the program, and each repeat rides on something the viewer just learned: a demo result, a testimonial, a stack addition, the guarantee stated in full. Same action every time, one number, one URL, one keyword. Never repeat the identical sentence cold, and never use a countdown, a stock count or a deadline that is not real in the seller's system at air time.

1. Run the compliance pass twice. Work references/compliance-checklist.md at script lock and again on the finished edit, timecoding every disclosure on the final cut. The non-negotiable placements: a program of 15 minutes or longer is marked clearly and conspicuously as a paid advertisement for the named product, sponsored by the named sponsor, at the beginning, at the end, and immediately before ordering instructions, every time ordering instructions appear. The program never dresses as news, an independent review or an investigation.

1. Adapt the shorter forms by compression, not by excerpt. For a home shopping segment, work one product in 7 to 8 minutes: problem, extended demo, live proof, options, honest stock or window update, close. For a two minute spot, rebuild the arc at spot length using the timing in the pacing reference. Never lift a random two minutes from the long program, because the excerpt will carry a claim without its offer or an offer without its disclosures.

1. Instrument the buy and review the tape. Give each placement, channel and pod its own phone number, URL or promo code where the seller's system allows it, and log orders against the segment map after airing. In the review, mark which demo block or testimonial sits in the minutes where orders rose or fell, and carry only that evidence into the next version. Change one block at a time between versions, or the log teaches nothing.

Output Contract

• A segment map CSV that passes scripts/segment_map_check.py, with the slot length it was timed to.
• A claims log: every claim, where it appears, the evidence held and its date. Empty evidence rows block production.
• A completed offer stack worksheet, signed by the seller, whose prices and terms match the script exactly.
• Pod scripts written against the map, with disclosure lines in place and the order action held on screen through each offer pod.
• A completed compliance checklist run on the finished edit, with disclosure placements timecoded.
• A placement log setup: the tracking number, URL or code per placement, ready for the post-air review.

Operating Rules

1. Every factual claim must be verified against a source held before production. Never invent numbers, prices, results, quotes or events. Unverifiable means cut it, or state it plainly as opinion where opinion is honest.
2. Testimonials are claims. The seller needs the same substantiation for a result stated by a customer as for the same result stated by the host, and a results not typical line alone does not clear an atypical result. Disclose the generally expected performance, with substantiation, beside the testimonial.
3. Material connections get disclosed inside the segment: payment, free product, employment, family ties, sales commission. If the audience would weigh the words differently knowing the connection, the connection goes on screen and in the audio.
4. Pricing is exact or it does not air. Installments multiply out to the stated total, shipping is stated, stack values have a real basis, and pod 1, pod 2, the order page and the phone script agree to the cent.
5. Continuity, trial and auto-ship terms are stated before billing information is collected, consent is express with no pre-ticked box, and cancellation steps are named in the offer itself. Online this is ROSCA, by phone the Telemarketing Sales Rule adds its own three disclosures. Do not cite the vacated click to cancel rule as live law.
6. This skill is production guidance, not legal advice. Health, income, financial and safety claims get the seller's own legal review of the locked script before production money is spent.