But wait, there's more!

"But wait, there's more!" is a catchphrase strongly associated with late-20th-century American direct-response advertising and infomercials. It is typically delivered by a pitchman at a moment designed to prevent the viewer from disengaging, introducing an added bonus, upgrade, or limited-time offer to increase perceived value and urgency. Because it emerged as a sales trope across many ads rather than from a single identifiable speaker or text, it is often credited to "Anonymous" or treated as part of advertising folklore rather than a quotable line with a fixed origin.

The phrase functions as a rhetorical hook: it interrupts the audience’s impulse to conclude (“I’ve heard enough”) and reopens attention with the promise of surplus value. Its power lies in escalation—what was already being offered is reframed as merely the beginning, implying generosity while also intensifying pressure to act now. Outside advertising, it is commonly used ironically to signal an additional complication, a surprising addendum, or a comedic “one more thing,” drawing on shared cultural memory of infomercial hype and the mechanics of persuasion.

“But wait—there’s more!”; “But wait, there’s more…!”; “Wait, there’s more!”