The email from a fellow marketer arrived yesterday with the subject line “Just like a direct marketer” and revealed the news: “Celebrity passings always come in threes – Ed, Farrah and Michael. Now Billy Mays steps up to say ‘But wait there’s more!’ ”

There really was more in store for Billy: He was the subject of a new Discovery Channel series, Pitchmen, and the 50-year-old salesman’s career seemed poised to reach an entirely new level.

Is it possible that a U.S. Air rough landing caused his death? Check out this paragraph from his Wikipedia page:

On June 27, Mays had been aboard US Airways Flight 1241, which landed roughly when one of its front tires was blown out. The heavy impact of the landing caused objects from the overhead storage compartments to fall and strike some passengers. Mays told WTVT-TV, a local Tampa FOX news station, that some of the objects “hit me on the head, but I got a hard head.” His wife noted that he felt unwell when he went to bed that night early at 10 pm. The next morning he was pronounced dead at 7:45 am by a local fire rescue crew.

Here’s coverage from HuffoPo, but what you’ll really want to see is this page featuring his top 10 commercials. And be sure to click that embedded video up there for the “Billy Mays Gangsta Remix.”

This entry was posted on Monday, June 29th, 2009 at 9:35 am and is filed under Marketing Stuff, This 'n' That.