Share
Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly
S5E10 - Live and Let Buy: Where You Live Dictates What You Purchase
Season 5, Ep. 10
•
The most interesting cultural differences aren’t country to country, they are province to province, state to state, and even city to city. This week, we explore how and why people living in different locations buy such vastly different products. British Columbia likes to show off luxury cars, Toronto likes big homes, and New York likes luxury watches. The most pampered pets live in Saskatchewan.
Last year, the city that bought the most sex paraphernalia was Victoria, this year it’s a city out east. Join us to find out which one. Live & Let Buy: where you live dictates what you buy.
We know you want to listen to all the ads in this show. On the off-chance you don’t, subscribe ad-free here.
More episodes
View all episodes
41. Orchestrating Elections: Political Campaign Songs
25:15||Season 15, Ep. 41In this episode from our archives, we take a look at one of the tools of political marketing – the campaign song.Politicians have used songs going all the way back to at least the 1700s.Sometimes the songs are written expressly for the political party or candidate.Sometimes, politicians co-opt pop songs.And sometimes, pop artists have a major problem with that.
40. Plop, Plop, Fizz, Fizz: How Companies Double Their Profits
27:52||Season 15, Ep. 40Every 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%.A favourite from our archives.
39. Houston, We Have Pizza: Advertising in Outer Space
27:01||Season 15, Ep. 39In 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.And those ads might even be cheaper than Super Bowl commercials.From our 2024 Archives.
38. Die Another Day: Reviving Old Commercials
28:46||Season 15, Ep. 38From our archives, a favourite...Occasionally, an old advertising campaign is brought back from the dead.Even if it has been off the air for decades.In this episode, we’ll discuss a recurring Coke commercial that has been called the most popular ad of all time.A much-loved beer campaign that has been revived after 34 years.And a controversial commercial that was yanked off the air in 1989, but was re-run again recently.
37. Bookmarks
28:02||Season 15, Ep. 37Because 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. The theme is “bravery” - and we’ll talk about how a brave goaltender revolutionized hockey, how Larry David routinely ignored studio executives, and we’ll salute the bravery of Lucille Ball.
36. The Gong Show: Ads That Could Never (Ever) Run Today
26:59||Season 15, Ep. 36In 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. Ads that couldn’t run today.From our 2024 Archives.
35. How Jerry Goodis Made an Advertisement a Beautiful Thing
27:44||Season 15, Ep. 35Jerry Goodis was one of the most colourful characters in the history of Canadian advertising.He founded a legendary advertising agency and created some of Canada’s longest-running ad campaigns. And while doing that, he attacked the ad industry for producing terrible ads. He was loved and hated but couldn’t be ignored. Another favourite from our Archives.
34. Putting the Awe in Audio
26:56||Season 15, Ep. 34Taking a 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.Another favourite from the Archives.
33. Cars Are The Stars: Automobile Brands In Hollywood
28:53||Season 15, Ep. 33Another favourite from our archives...Almost every movie and television show needs cars, and auto companies are happy to supply them – because it helps sell a lot of cars.We’ll look back at James Bond and Starsky & Hutch, and explore auto partnerships with movie franchises like Transformers and Marvel.We’ll also tell a crazy story of how the most sought-after car from a Steve McQueen movie was finally found – and the cosmic coincidence that led to its discovery. Cars are the stars.