Show Notes
This encore episode of Under The Influence is one of our favourites of 2026.
Lately, companies have been hijacking breaking news stories to create ads. When thieves broke into the Louvre with a ladder, the ladder company quickly produced a tongue-in-cheek ad. When the Oscars read the wrong Best Picture winner, an optometry chain made fun of the mix-up. It’s called Newsjacking – and it’s becoming a powerful marketing tactic. We know you want to listen to all the ads in this show. On the off-chance you don’t, subscribe ad-free here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More from Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly
Every company dreams of doubling its profit. It’s almost impossible to do. Yet, some companies do it by tweaking one tiny thing. We’ll talk about an industry that put three words on their packaging that doubled their profit. A company that created a catchy jingle that doubled their revenue overnight. And a business that changed one single word in a headline and their profit went up 100%.
In this episode, we shoot for the moon. Now that commercialized space travel has arrived, the world of marketing is setting its sights on the stars. We’ll talk about ads on rocket ships, ads on spacesuits, and television commercials filmed on the International Space Station. There are companies who want to employ hundreds of tiny satellites to create logos in the night sky. Some companies even want to put ads on the moon.
Because Terry LOVES books, we do an annual Bookmarks episode. This one is from 2024. There’s never enough room to include all the great stories we find in our research books. So this episode is dedicated to all those stories that didn’t fit into our regular episodes.
In this episode, we go back in advertising history and take a look at the ads and commercials that could never, ever, EVER run today. They are either so politically incorrect, so sexist, or so inappropriate, you won’t believe your ears. From doctors recommending cigarettes, to 7-Up advertising to babies, to everyone singing about the joys of DDT, it’s amazing to think they all ran back in the day.