Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly

Take a walk down any busy main street, and you’ll probably see one of the oldest forms of advertising:

The sandwich board.

They have been around for over 200 years.

Cities try and ban them.

Storekeepers love them.

They can make you smile.

They can make you angry.

They can attract a lot of attention.

They are the pop-up ads of the physical world.

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Customers often lie to companies in surveys, polls and focus groups.

Yet advertisers rely on that flawed and false feedback to market brands and create advertising campaigns.

So what are advertisers to do?

One solution is Google.

What we type into the Google search window is like a truth serum. We all pour our most intimate, honest questions into that search box.

...

80% of all advertising is ignored.

That’s why some advertisers employ cheeky advertising.

It’s usually bold – outrageous – and sometimes even rude – but always with a playful undertone.

We’ll talk about a fruit company that printed an open letter to the Pope.

An airline campaign that told you to “keep it in your pants.”

And a product that claims your grandparents had more sex than you.

Most tourism marketing aims at the largest audience possible.

This week, we look at a sub-category aimed at the smallest audience possible:

Billionaire Tourism.

The super wealthy get bored easily.

That means luxury tour planners dream up extreme vacation ideas.

From outer space, to the bottom of the ocean, to secretly getting the key to the Sistine Chapel, it’s a whole new pricey world.

There are some time-honored honorifics in the world of marketing.

“Honorifics” are titles like Mr., Mrs., Doctor, Captain or Colonel. 

Like Colonel Sanders, Dr. Scholl’s, Mr. Clean and Mrs. Butterworth’s.

They’re usually leaders in their category.

Is it because those products are the best?

Or – is it because those brand names give the products a sense of respect and author...

Arkells is a band that likes to have fun.They are also a very smart band that understands the critical mix of artistry and marketing in a competitive industry.

Frontman Max Kerman tells Terry the inventive ways they market their music, the creative ideas Arkells use to launch new material, and what marketing from other bands they admire.

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As Oscar night approaches, we head to theatres to figure out why movies about brands are so popular.

“Barbie” is breaking box office records.

 “Air” tells the story of Nike signing Michael Jordan.

“Blackberry” explains the spectacular rise and fall of the first smartphone – and is getting great reviews.

And a movie about the origins of McDonald’s – starring Michael Keaton - just might surprise you.

They don’t ...

Last week, we talked about the best historic demonstration commercials of all time. This week, we feature some of the most recent.

Like an air freshener commercial that tricked blindfolded people into thinking a filthy toilet smelled like flowers.

And a stunt where an ad agency put $3 million dollars between the glass of a bus shelter - unguarded, to demonstrate a point.

H...

This week, I ask a dozen of the top creative directors in the advertising business to tell me the best “demonstration commercials” they have ever seen.

Because there is nothing more powerful than a dramatic product demonstration.

We’ll talk about a famous Krazy Glue commercial.

And a Volvo ad where the ad writer risked his life to demonstrate a point.

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This week, we look at the most creative audio ideas from around the world.

Including a podcast for runners that only works if you’re actually running, a police recruitment campaign that capitalized on the popularity of True Crime, and a very ambitious alternative audio track created to be played over Disney’s Pocahontas movie – that tells the truth behind the fairy tale.

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Recently, we produced an episode on cannabis marketing. With cannabis legalization, it’s a brand-new, challenging marketing category.

As a result of that episode, I asked the Ontario Cannabis Store to introduce me to an actual cannabis producer.

I wanted to know how a cannabis producer becomes licensed, how a craft cannabis company competes with the big companies, and how a small cannabis company markets its products in such ...

This week, we analyze the remarkable marketing skills of one of the top music artists in the world – Taylor Swift.

She has challenged the status quo at every turn – she regained ownership of her master recordings. She convinced Apple and Spotify to pay artists in a more equitable way. She defied Hollywood. She markets her music to her fans in very surprising ways.

And holds over 70 Guinness World Records.

This week, we go one toke over the line and look at the emerging world of cannabis marketing.

We start with the question - just how does a plant become illegal?

We’ll explore the history of cannabis.

We’ll talk about which celebrities have their own brands (Hello Willie Nelson!)

Which high-end retail stores are now selling expensive cannabis paraphernalia.

And which non-cannabis businesses are seeing a surprising...

This week, we look at copycat brands.

Even though they walk a razor’s edge legally, copycat brands seem to pop up all over the world.

You may like Walmart here, but there’s a Wumart in China.

You may like North Face apparel, but did you know there was a South Butt brand?

And, we’ll tell the story of a copycat cookie that overtook the original to become the best-selling cookie in the world.

To kick off our 2024 season, we look at a strange phenomenon happening in Canada.

Well-established brands are suddenly leaving the country.

Kleenex is leaving after nearly 100 years.

Skippy Peanut Butter has skipped the country after nearly 90 years.

And KFC actually held a funeral for their terrible-tasting French fries.

What’s happening up here?

Find out.

Every once in a while, we drop an interesting show into our feed that we think you’ll like.

This week, it’s “Twenty Thousand Hertz” - a show about the world’s most recognizable and interesting sounds.

The show’s title comes from the highest frequency that can be perceived within the human hearing range.

In this episode, host Dallas Taylor explores the world of advertising jingles.

They used to be an advertising staple, ...

This week, we turn the show over to listeners. It’s our annual “As Terry” show. We asked you to submit any questions you had about the advertising world, and you responded with a record amount of very interesting, very insightful ones that touch on subjects like negative political advertising, why there are so many bad local commercials, and what do background actors really say when their lips move. 

Join us for some surpri...

This week, we invite you to our Book Club. We'll be telling stories from Terry's favourite advertising books, and will examine the incredible lessons they contain that have served him well for his entire career. 

By the way, a few of those books aren’t even about advertising. In fact, one is a book about science, and another is about theatre actors.

But each one contains incredible wisdom that can be applied directly to ...