Wow, I never saw this coming…I just received a very exclusive email of the following press release from EA.  Guess their delay worked out successfully, as they have snagged one of the biggest names in spokesperson history to help market off their product:  Billy Mays.

“Hi, Billy Mays here to bring to you the most important endorsement I have ever done: The Sims 3!”

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., April 1, 2009 – Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) today announced that infomercial salesman genius William “Billy” Mays will help market The Sims™ 3 in several upcoming ads and television commercials.  The highly-anticipated flagship game from the best-selling PC franchise will ship to store shelves worldwide starting June 2, 2009.

“Billy Mays here with the most exciting product that I’ve ever endorsed:  The Sims 3!  Offered both in Standard and Collector’s Edition priced respectively at $49.99 and $69.99, it can be yours for 2 easy payments of $24.99 for the Standard Edition or 5 easy payments of $13.99 for the Collector’s Edition!  That’s right, only 5 easy payments of $13.99!  But wait, I’m not done yet!  If you pre-order the Collector’s Edition within the next three hours from the EA Store, I’ll throw in a free personalized autographed picture of me with each copy – it’s my free gift to you!  If you are not 100% satisfied with the game, just return it for a refund and keep the autograph picture as my gift to you!  But wait, there’s more!  Both editions of the game will also include a code to download a sim version of myself!  You have nothing to lose and everything to gain!  So hurry up and pre-order now, this offer will NOT last forever; I’m standing by to take your order!!!”

“We are extremely excited for Billy Mays to help market off our product, I’m sure we’ll gain many new customers who would not of even considered The Sims 3 in the first place.  In fact, the development team has decided to incorporate a few of his products into the final build of the game:  the ShamWow for when your Sims need to clean up their spills or leaks, OxiClean for when you Sim stains his clothes from a hard day’s work, and even Mighty Putty for those Sims breaking items with their clumsy trait!”, stated Ben Bell, Executive Producer of The Sims 3.

“At first, we didn’t think Billy would be able to pull this off, but after we invited a focus group to greet Billy, 99% of the people agreed Billy is a perfect candidate to help advertise the game – the other 1% was fed to our cowplant.” said Andrea Weber, lead Community Manager for The Sims 3.

“Haha, He (Billy) is quite the character.  We invited him to our studios for a tour, and during a break, a another web developer spotted him etching his name into one of our tables.  Funny thing about it, he didn’t have time to complete it and it read ‘Billy was her’!” Daniel Grove, web designer of TheSims3.com exclaimed.

For more information about The Sims 3, please go to www.TheSims3.com. The Sims 3, developed by The Sims Studio, is also in development for Mac, iPhone, iPod Touch and mobile devices.

About Billy Mays

William “Billy” Mays is a television commercial and infomercial spokesman most notable for promoting cleaning, home-based and maintenance products.  His trademark beard and loud sales pitches has made him a recognizable television presence.  Mays is the CEO and founder of Mays Promotions, Inc., based at his home in Odessa, Florida. His services as a pitchman have become highly sought-after, and he has appeared in commercials for many diverse “as seen on TV” products that in which Mays claims to be an avid user of the products he promotes.

About The Sims 3

Get inspired by the endless creative possibilities and unexpected moments of surprise and mischief in The Sims 3! Customize your Sims’ appearances and choose up to five traits to create individual personalities. From the “Romantic” trait or “kleptomaniac” trait to “evil” trait, create millions of unique Sims from the vast amount of personalities. New goal-oriented game play enables you to choose which short or long-term objectives you want your Sims to pursue and even determine your Sims’ destinies in life. Create and edit your own movies by capturing your gameplay moments or select from a library of clips. Then join The Sims 3 online community where you can show off all of your creations, get free bonus content, hear the latest news, and more! Download exclusive content and hear the latest news of The Sims 3 at www.TheSims3.com.

About Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is the world’s leading interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, the Company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software worldwide for video game systems, personal computers, cellular handsets and the Internet. Electronic Arts markets its products under four brand names: EA SPORTSTM, EATM, EA SPORTS FreestyleTM and POGOTM. In fiscal 2008, EA posted GAAP net revenue of $3.67 billion and had 27 titles that sold more than one million copies. EA’s homepage and online game site is www.ea.com. More information about EA’s products and full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at http://info.ea.com.

EA, EA SPORTS, EA SPORTS Freestyle, POGO and The Sims are trademarks or registered trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

The Sims Label
Apral Fulls
Manager, Public Relations
[email protected]

*Happy April Fools Day, everyone!  The press release and statements from various EA/Maxis representatives as well as from Billy Mays are purely fictional – so don’t sue me!  Although it would be interesting to see if they could get Mays to advertise for a video…*