Chillow (Water-Based Cooling Pad) – A Marketing Review
The summertime heat is relentless, the humidity is nearing an unbearable 100%, and your air conditioner is now malfunctioning.
Thanks to the heat wave it’s still going to be two more days until a technician can repair your system. In the meantime you’re at the mercy of whatever relief your small house fans can provide. Trying to sleep at night is nearly impossible as sweat continues to soak into your pillow, creating a damp and very uncomfortable sleeping environment.
Instead of the summer example, what if you’re susceptible to hot flashes, or you’re just somebody who tends to overheat in bed? The simple act of trying to get some rest at night can be a stressful challenge.
Is there any way to help keep your head and neck cool without constantly flipping over the pillow and seeking a cool spot, if it even exists?
Chillow website — www.Chillow.com
What’s this? The Chillow? Does it really work? Can this product really help keep you cooler when relaxing and sleeping at night?
Chillow TV commercial
Let’s take a closer look at the Chillow’s advertisement and see if this looks like a legitimate product, or if it falls into the bottomless spit of spam, scams and other junk constantly advertised on television.
Chillow TV commercial – The pillow cannot retain any more sweat (or drool).
The Chillow advertisement begins with a woman dripping with sweat, and desperate for some kind of cool relief. One would like to assume that the air conditioner is operating and the sheets and blankets on the bed are an absolute minimum. We’ve all been in a situation like that whether it’s from a bad nightmare, a hot flash, or just a warm night inside of the home.
Chillow TV commercial – The pillow ignites from the woman’s severe hot flash.
Another example shows a woman suffering from a hot flash. While your pillow probably will not ignite as exaggerated in this short clip, the point is still there. Hot flashes suck and it seems like there’s little one can do to seek relief. That is, apart from cooling the room, drinking cold water, having a damp wash cloth on your face, or in extreme cases, jumping into the shower for a few minutes.
Granted, taking a shower or even using a damp wash cloth is a bit inconvenient in the middle of the night, but they are potential solutions to that problem. Of course, this advertisement hints that we’ll probably be exposed to a much simpler solution.
Chillow TV commercial – Radioactive? No, just a visual exaggeration of what to expect from the cooling pad.
And the answer to solving the problem of being too hot at night is . . . . . the Chillow! It’s “. . . a pillow pack that transforms your pillow into a Chillow.” Um, no. That has got to be one of the worst product descriptions that I’ve ever heard.
– “Oooh, what is that on your bed?”
– – “It’s a Chillow!”
– “What’s a Chillow?”
– – “It’s a pillow pack that transforms your pillow into a Chillow.”
– “Can you rephrase that answer so it actually makes sense?”
How hard is it to say that the Chillow is a water-based cooling pad? That still sounds pretty impressive. Chances are good that if people heard that answer in the first place then they’d be curious to how it worked.
Chillow TV commercial – No, the pillow is not a late night snack.
Like the sheets, blankets, mattress, and whatever clothing you’re wearing to bed, pillows also absorb and retain body heat. If you’re extra warm and sweaty like this guy, then the pillow is going to be an enemy of getting a good night’s sleep. Turning over the pillow to the cool side might help temporarily, but a few minutes later you’ll still be sweaty and uncomfortable.
Chillow TV commercial – The secret lies with the watery interior.
The secret to the Chillow lies with the water inside of the pad. Don’t expect the commercial or product’s website to go into any details about how the Chillow actually works. To learn that you’ll have to go a step further.
Basically, the Chillow pad works like a radiator. The concept is that water absorbs and transfers heat much faster than air. Heat from your head and neck is transferred to the water and then dispersed to other parts of the pad. In those other sections the heat is then released into the open air. That’s also how the Chillow stays cool. Those exposed sections of the Chillow pad maintain the temperature of the surrounding air, whether you have your house warm and in the mid 70s or cooler in the low to mid 60s.
Unless you’re running a serious fever and literally baking in your bed, then the majority of the water inside of the Chillow will remain at room temperature and continually help cool your head and neck.
Chillow TV commercial – The temperature in the room is too damn high!
Here we have a clash where the guy likes the room hot and the woman prefers a cold room for sleeping. Common courtesy states that you set the room to the colder temperatures as it’s significantly easier for a cold person to bundle underneath blankets than it is for a hot person to remove articles of clothing and try to cool themselves.
Thanks to a cooling pad product like the Chillow, common courtesy is less of an issue and the person seeking a cooler sleeping condition can at least have a cooler head and neck.
Chillow TV commercial – A weak analogy or a warning about drinking too much before bedtime?
Apparently using the Chillow is compared to lying in a cool oasis in the middle of a hot desert. That claim seems a little bit far-fetched as the Chillow is only meant to help cool your head and neck and not the remainder of your body. With an analogy like that, one wonders if perhaps really hot people should just invest in water beds.
Chillow TV commercial – Proof is in the thermal images.
Here we have a classic example of thermal imaging showing a difference in both the woman’s body heat and the heat of the pillow. As we see with the down pillow, the pillow itself still retains a tremendous amount of heat once the woman leaves. But the Chillow, on the other hand, has a significantly smaller heat signature after the woman leaves. Most of the pillow is still the same temperature as the rest of the room.
The example is actually more honest than you would expect for an as-seen-on-TV commercial. One would expect the marketers to try a trick like throwing the Chillow into the refrigerator for a few minutes before using it in the commercial, trying to make it look as cool as possible. But when you look at the upper right part of each image you’ll see the blueish color of not the bed’s mattress but the wall itself. The blue is roughly the same color as the Chillow as the wall itself. If the Chillow was placed in refrigeration to exaggerate its abilities, then it would appear as a darker blue or even a blackish color on the thermal image, and not roughly the same shade of blue (and therefore the same temperature) as the bedroom wall.
Chillow TV commercial – The horrors of trying to use an ice pack to relieve pressure from a migraine headache.
After showing how the Chillow can be used both on top and inside of a pillow case, we see an example of a woman who suffers from migraine headaches. She complains that using ice packs is messy as you have to hold them in place and the condensation will drip water on you. Oh, the horror!
Low and behold, the Chillow can apparently be used to help provide relief from those nasty headaches. I doubt that the water-based cooling pad will reach anywhere near the sub-freezing temperatures of the ice pack. As far as the relative coolness of the Chillow helping relieve the pains of a migraine, that’s going to vary depending on the person suffering from the headache.
Chillow TV commercial – The versatility may be more in the marketing than legitimate uses.
After that we’re shown the same examples of the people who suffer from hot flashes and night sweats. Like earlier in the commercial, once again we’re seeing how their problem was allegedly solved by using the Chillow.
We’re also shown how people are using the Chillow to solve both back problems and sore feet as well. When it comes to back problems, most people opt for using a heating pad instead of seeking a colder treatment. Besides, when you have a large surface area (such as a person’s back) on a water-based cooling pad like the Chillow, you greatly diminish the cooling pad’s ability to cool. Remember that you need areas of the Chillow to be exposed to the open air so whatever heat is transferred from your body is able to be released into the air. A person’s head and neck is a relatively small amount of surface area on a cooling pad versus a person’s back.
We also see a brief example of a person using the Chillow to help soothe aching feet. When it comes to aching and swollen feet, most people tend to elevate them and apply a heating pad to help soothe away the pain. Athletes and those with sports-related injuries tend to opt for the cool treatment to help with injuries, and those treatments normally involve a ton of icy and freezing cold water, stuff significantly colder than a Chillow.
The advertisers are stretching for uses in those last two examples. Yes, it might help relieve some pain with some people, but most people will seek other forms of comfort. Just because a product can do something doesn’t mean that it’s the best or optimal solution.
Chillow TV commercial – Why settle for just one when you can have TWO Chillows?
At the ending of the Chillow TV commercial we’re hit with the big promotion. Sure enough, if we take advantage of the special offer in the commercial and on the product’s website, we can get a second Chillow for free. All we have to do is pay for the extra shipping charge.
The TOTAL COST of the single Chillow costs $19.94 ($12.99 + $6.95 shipping & handling). Taking advantage of the special promotion for a second Chillow increases the total price to $26.89 ($12.99 + $6.95 S&H + $6.95 S&H for the “free” Chillow).
FINAL THOUGHTS
Normally when it comes to these as-seen-on-TV products they’re, well, mostly crappy items. Many of them are cheap gimmicks designed to separate you from your hard earned money.
But the concept behind the Chillow is rather interesting. As it was explained (oddly enough not in either the advertisement or the website), the Chillow basically works like a radiator. It uses water to absorb the ambient heat inside of the bedroom, or wherever you use the Chillow, and then exchange it with the excessive body heat in your head and neck. As long as the Chillow has “breathing room” this creates a continually cool surface that will help people who suffer from hot flashes, night sweats and other heat-related sleeping problems.
Chillow website – FAQ page
The website’s FAQ page goes into some useful information about the Chillow. For example, it mentions that the Chillow only requires water to activate and use the product. There’s also information about the four different levels of coolness with the Chillow, and the dimensions of the product (21″ x 12″, BTW).
Personally, I like the concept behind the Chillow. It seems like a legitimate product that could help a lot of people with heat-related sleeping problems, especially right now during the summer months.
It’s just a shame that the advertising for the Chillow resorts to the standard level of cheesiness and exaggerations common in many as-seen-on-TV products. If the advertisers changed a few segments and actually took the product seriously, they might see a significant boost in sales in this water-based cooling pad.
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All of the Chillow commercial images were screenshots of a TV commercial currently available on YouTube and the product’s website. For more product information, please visit the company’s website at www.Chillow.com.
Chillow is a registered trademark.
RellimZone.com is not affiliated with Chillow.
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This article was originally published at www.chamberofreviews.com on July 14, 2013.