The Ginsu knife is a product most famous for the activities that were used to promote it. It was made famous through a series of long-form advertisements in the 1970s and it is claimed paved the way for the modern day infomercial with its use of quirky catchphrases, comical quips, and urgent call to action, including the phrase "how much would you pay...don't answer" and "but wait, there's more". Ed Valenti and Barry Becher, founders of the Rhode Island based direct marketing agency Dial Media, found a set of knives made in Fremont, Ohio by the Douglas Quikut Division of Scott Fetzer.

Originally called Eversharp, Valenti and Becher decided that they had to come up with a more alluring name before the product could become a true success and catch on in mainstream media.[citation needed] After some discussion, they came up with the Japanese-sounding name "Ginsu" (Kanji Japanese: , Hiragana: ). The first Ginsu commercials aired in 1978, it began with a dramatic voice over: “In Japan, the hand can be used like a knife” with a man in a white karate uniform splitting a stack of wooden boards with his hand. “But this method doesn’t work with a tomato;” the voice over continues and the scene changes to show a hand smashing a tomato into a pulpy mess; which is where the Ginsu knife came in.

It could “cut through a nail, a tin can, and a radiator hose and still cut a tomato paper thin,” touting the knives' ability to stay razor sharp even after having been put to the test.

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