Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly - A Moment I'll Never Forget: The Power of PSAs

Episode Date: April 26, 2025

This week, we look at public service announcements. PSAs have to compete with - not just other PSAs - but with all other commercials out there. And do it with an iota of the budget. It requires exceptional creativity. We’ll talk about how Elvis got teens to get a polio vaccine, and a drinking & driving commercial recorded by drunk actors. --------Looking for where to find a discount on the Saily data plan?Get an exclusive 15% discount on Saily data plans! Use code TERRY at checkout. Download Saily app or go tohttps://saily.com/terry" Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hi there, Sydney O'Reilly here. We regret to inform you that the Rejection podcast is back for its sixth season, and Terry and I have some fun episodes to share with you this year. We'll be telling the stories of Yellowstone, Josh Allen, Bill Hader, Monty Python, Billie Holliday, and Canada's own Alanis Morissette. It's jagged little rejections this year, and we regret to inform you. Hope you'll join us.

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If you're a business owner, marketing your company can feel like trying to find a specific needle in a haystack of needles. To help, may I suggest a book I just read? It's titled, Dim Sum Strategy, Bite-sized tools to build stronger brands, written by Peter Wilkin. Peter is a branding expert with over 40 years' experience working with the world's top brands. His book helps you sharpen your marketing, explaining the difference between branding

and brand building, the three reasons why brands fail, and why you should use the brand-centered management process to put your brand at the center of your business. That's why I like Peter's book. He distills his thinking down into easily understood practical ideas you can implement directly into your business. His insights are not academic theory, they're battle tested. Peter offers you experience

you normally would never have access to unless you had an expensive ad agency on Retainer. If you manage a brand, this is the book for you. Dim Sum Strategy by Peter Wilkin. In print, ebook and audio. Visit PeterWilkin. com to find out more. Here's a question.

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Sleep better knowing your mattress is made in Canada. Douglas Mattress. Canada's best mattress. This is an Apostrophe podcast production. That's a spicy meatball. What love doesn't conquer, Alka sells her will. What a relief! You're under the influence of Terry O'Reilly. Back in the 1950s, the polio epidemic spread across the world. Scientists hoped a vaccine would eliminate the dreaded disease. In 1954, the New York City Health Department launched a massive publicity campaign to promote

polio vaccinations. The vaccination had been developed by Jonas Sulk. launched a massive publicity campaign to promote polio vaccinations. The vaccination had been developed by Jonas Salk. Over 900,000 New Yorkers got vaccinated, and the number of new polio cases in the city fell to almost zero. But then, something happened. Columnist and media personality Walter Winchell threw cold water on the initiative, saying the vaccine might, in fact, cause deaths.

His influence stoked fear among teenagers who were at the highest risk of contracting polio, so they stopped getting vaccinated. Immunization levels among teens dropped to an abysmal 0.6% and polio was paralyzing an average of 35,000 kids annually. The medical community needed a way to reach those teenagers. So they turned to someone who had incredible sway over that demographic. Elvis Presley's career had skyrocketed after his historic appearance on the Ed Sullivan show. Now ladies and gentlemen, yes that's right, Elvis Presley, you're in number one!

In 1956, Heartbreak Hotel had reached number one on the charts, and Love Me Tender, his debut film, would be released that November. So on September 9, 1956, before the Ed Sullivan show started, Presley smiled, rolled up his sleeves in front of the press and Sullivan himself, and let a doctor and nurse give him a polio shot in his arm. Elvis publicized the moment by sending photos of his inoculation out across the nation. He also recorded a message. This is Elvis Presley.

I ask you to listen. Remember me. Now that's the voice of thousands who know the fight against polio is just as tough as it ever was. Some of them are paralyzed so that they can't even move a finger. Others can't do the simplest everyday things that we take so much for granted. Teens all across Canada and the United States followed in Elvis's footsteps and got the polio shot. As a matter of fact, vaccination rates among youth soared to 80% just six months later. That was Elvis's superpower. He was admired by the hardest to reach population, teenagers.

Seeing him get vaccinated was far more powerful than any statistic, political speech, or somber commercial. In many ways, that photo of Elvis was one of the most effective public service messages of all time. ["Public Service Announcements"] Public service announcements play a big role in the world of marketing. While the advertising industry spends its days promoting products for consumption, it also produces incredibly powerful public service messages around the world.

You might be surprised to know that advertising agencies produce thousands of public service announcements each year. And the creativity is astounding. You're under the influence. A public service announcement has to compete not just with other PSAs but with everything else out there. It has to fight for attention the same way a Ford or McDonald's commercial has to. But a PSA usually has to step into that ring with an iota of the budget. That's why the creative ideas have to be especially powerful. In the last few years, more and more books have been banned worldwide. It's a troubling

trend. A recent list shows that over 1,500 books have been yanked from North American shelves already. And in some cases, those books have even been burned. So let's talk about this new book banning craze. Some of the nation's most famous and critically acclaimed books have been banned. We have this banning of books and even a threat to burns. Some of them are burning books. Absolutely awful.

Next level. One of the most banned books has been Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. It's a story about misogyny and oppression and has been banned in schools, libraries and even in entire countries such as Spain and Portugal. So Canadian advertising agency Rethink decided to work with Atwood to create a very special copy of her novel. They called it The Unburnable book. It was printed on fire resistant paper bound with a flame retardant cover. Then they gave Margaret Atwood a flame thrower

and filmed her blasting the book with fire. But it was unburnable. The point was clear. Powerful words can never be extinguished. But it didn't end there. The unburnable book was then put up for auction at Sotheby's. The pre-auction estimate was that it would sell for between $50,000 and $100,000. When the auction gavel finally fell, the unburnable book edition of The Handmaid's Tale sold for $130,000 US. All proceeds from the sale went to the nonprofit organization PEN, which stands for Poets,

Essayists, and Novelists, to fight book banning and to protect stories and ideas from those who want to banish them. Rethink also developed an interesting drinking and driving campaign. The message was created for the Ontario-based non-profit, Arrive Alive, Drive Sober. Rethink recruited three top voiceover actors and brought them into a studio. Three different commercials were produced. In each ad, the actors were asked to record the commercials while drunk.

But here's the interesting thing. When they recorded those commercials legally drunk, they sound completely sober. And that was the message. Just because you sound sober doesn't mean you are. You might think an impaired driver is someone so stumbling drunk they slur their words. The truth is, a ton of drinking and driving collisions are caused by people who sound just like me. Before recording this, I drank four glasses of red wine and now I'm over the limit.

Do I sound sober? Check it out. She sells seashells by the seashore. Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. Or how about this classic brain scrambler? I'm totally fine to drive men. Trust me. Arrivalive. Drive sober. Visit Arrivalive.org. In another ad, an actor chugs four beers in a row. And the third actor does multiple shots

of tequila. That was my third shot of tequila. How do I sound? Here goes the fourth. Do I sound drunk? I'm not slurring my words. Fact is a lot of impaired drivers convince themselves they're sober because they sound okay. But I'm way over the limit no matter how sober I can act. So I'm cabbing at home from the studio. Here's a toast. Here's to making it home without crashing into a tree. Cheers! Arrive Alive. Drive sober. Visit arrivealive.org. It was a sobering thing to hear because a lot of people convinced themselves, and others,

that just because they aren't slurring their words, they are okay to drive. The campaign was launched in June just before the summer season, when most drinking and driving situations occur. At the end of the video, rethink made of the actors recording the commercials, which you can find on YouTube by searching Drunk Radio. All three actors got into cabs to go home with one parting message. Just because you sound okay to drive doesn't mean you are. Drive sober., arrive alive. On the subject of impaired driving,

Canadian advertising agency LG2 came up with a smart, simple idea. They created special drink coasters. They were called safety coasters and were distributed in bars across Quebec. These special coasters were chip enabled and doubled as a bus pass. So if someone was drinking over the limit they could take the drink coaster when they left the bar then tap it to receive one free transit fare for a safe and uneventful journey home.

The coasters were supported by videos that also ran on screens in bars. Such a simple idea, utilizing drink coasters placed in the very locations where people drink. Which proves my mantra that everything, no matter how small, is a creative opportunity. An advertising agency in Berlin, Germany, teamed up with an independent brewery to create something unusual. They produced the most illegal beer in the world. The beer broke laws in 50 countries for one simple reason. It was brewed by women. The independent craft beer brand Moushicraft, which means pussy power in English,

launched an ale that intentionally breaks laws in multiple countries where women are not allowed to do the same things men can do. The advertising agency created a video that featured real women from Russia, Uruguay, Italy, Sri Lanka, It featured real women from Russia, Uruguay, Italy, Sri Lanka, Madagascar, and other countries and explained which law each woman broke. Like women worked in the brewery with yeast. Illegal in Sri Lanka. Women produced alcohol. Illegal in Lebanon.

Women cleaned and repaired running machinery. Illegal in Uruguay and eight more countries. Oh, by the way, this woman broke three laws from different countries just by using cosmetics and wearing tight jeans that are low cut at the same time. Illegal in the city of Morrisville, USA, as well as North Korea and Castellamare d'Estaubia, Italy. Women worked night shifts for the beer.

Illegal in Nigeria and 30 more countries. And also pulled hand trucks. Women lifted heavy beers. And women drove trucks. Illegal in Madagascar, Russia, and 22 other countries. Sales of the most illegal beer in the world raised money to support Women for Women, a global organization that fights for gender equality. Lately, white supremacist groups have been using Nazi codes to bypass bans and spread their racist ideology.

They print these codes on t-shirts and other merchandise. For example, instead of saying Hitler, the t-shirt would be abbreviated to HTLR. Revenue from this merchandise is the main source of income for these groups. So an advertising agency in Hamburg, Germany, teamed up with an NGO called Noise Against Nazis. Using trademark law, they secured the rights to the best-selling Nazi codes. Because they were now the rightful owners of the codes, they brought lawsuits against these supremacist groups,

had the merchandise destroyed, and claimed compensation for each item sold. The simple idea turns Nazis into funders against Nazi messages. When we come back, ghosts call for gun reform. Ghosts call for gun reform. Traveling in Europe is such a unique experience for us Canadians. You can hop from country to country with ease. For Canadians with a country that stretches for more than 5,000 kilometers, it seems almost impossible to imagine visiting five or more countries in just a couple of days.

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by mentioning us at checkout. Terms and conditions apply. Last February, Congress people in the United States heard from certain teenagers advocating for the end of gun violence. The calls were unusual because the teenagers making the calls were dead. Advertising agency Mullin-Lowe teamed up with a non-profit gun reform organization called March for Our Lives. They created what they called a shot line

that acts as both a platform for sharing stories of victims and a mechanism for streamlining calls to policymakers. The group used AI to recreate the actual voices of teenagers who were killed in mass shootings at their high schools. Hello, I'm Joaquin. I was murdered at school by a shooter with an AR-15 assault rifle. My voice has been recreated using powerful AI technology,

along with the voices of others who have lost their lives to gun violence, because our stories need to be heard and who better to tell them than us but we can't do this alone so we created the shot line a website where anyone can go and have our voices call their representatives we need you to help send these calls so that we will be heard and we can demand change go to theshotline.org to find your representative and trigger a call they can't ignore. Together we will all call for an end to gun violence.

The recordings were consensual deepfakes, permitted by the families of the victims to apply pressure on American policymakers. Visitors to the platform's site can listen to the reconstructed voices relating how they were killed, as well as why congresspeople who are unwilling to reform gun violence carry some of the blame. An option to send the recordings as a phone call to one's local members of Congress is provided. The shot line was launched on the sixth anniversary of the Parkland shooting. Over the past eight years, domestic violence in South Korea has increased by 718 percent, but only 2 percent are reported to police. The reason so few are reported is because the victims are often unable to speak,

as they are in the same space as their abuser. So how can the police help a victim who cannot talk? An advertising agency called Chail Worldwide collaborated with the Korean National Police Agency to come up with an effective solution. Inspired by Morse code, the campaign was called Knock Knock. When people needed help but could not speak, they dialed emergency number 112 on their cell phone. Then, all they had to do was tap any number twice.

Without saying anything, the police hear the knock-knock and are instantly notified. The caller is sent a silent link to verify the call. That link allows police to see what's happening through the caller's phone camera. It also allows police to track the caller's location. Then the connection enables a secret chat window that is camouflaged to look like a typical Google search page, allowing police to assess the situation in real time

and take immediate action. This new type of emergency call was introduced to over 4,800 police call operators nationwide. The public was made aware of the new service through unusual channels like beauty websites, hair and nail salons, and other locations frequented by women. Almost immediately after the launch, police received 5,749 silent calls for help. Knock Knock was so successful, it became an official emergency call in South Korea. Peru ranks among the top places in the world for ultraviolet radiation, and skin cancer has been increasing to alarming levels.

So to make people aware and to remind people to protect themselves from the sun's harmful rays, advertising agency Lima Macan teamed up with the League Against Cancer and came up with a bold idea. In the summer season about 1.6 million vehicles drive Lima's busiest coastal highway taking millions more people to various Peruvian beaches. That highway is dotted with billboards from all kinds of different advertisers. And that was the opportunity. The advertising agency approached those advertisers and asked if they could slightly alter their billboards. If the billboard showed a human face, the ad agency wanted to paint white stripes of sunblock

on the cheeks and noses of those faces. No other part of the billboard would be altered. You can only imagine what an ask that is, and we're talking big brands here, like Ford, Coca-Cola, Huggies, Diners Club, and the largest private sector bank in Lima. Remarkably, all the brands agreed to participate. The result was kilometers of billboards all along the coastal highway, all with different messages from all different brands,

and all the faces on those billboards had sunblock on them. So, if you were driving to the beach in Peru, you had no excuse to forget the sunblock. When we come back, a public service message I'll never forget. A few years ago, I attended the annual Advertising and Design Club of Canada awards. It's one of the most respected advertising award shows in the country and is attended by all the advertising award shows in the country and is attended by all the top advertising people in the business. As the awards were announced, the winners would get up on stage, accept their trophy and say a few words.

Then the last award of the night was given out. The winner walked up to the stage. He was a little rough looking. Then this happened. Thanks. I'd like to thank the judges. This was a real labor of love, and it actually came in a really difficult time in my life. My father passed away recently, and it's been a tough

couple of months trying to deal with that. And it's put a lot of things into perspective for me. It's made me realize that I haven't seen my family as much as I should, and I haven't seen a lot of people as much as I should. People in the audience were starting to get uncomfortable. And I'm sure a lot of you out there understand that feeling. The anxiety and the depression, it creeps up on you.

And after a while, you're not seeing the light at the end of the tunnel anymore. And you start to feel like you're not going to be yourself ever again. But you can't remember what that felt like in the first place, so it doesn't really matter. And then pretty soon, nothing matters. I remember at that moment, my daughter, who was sitting beside me, suddenly grabbed my arm. It felt like this wasn't going to end well. I should have done it sooner,

because how long can you go on pretending everything's okay? I called NABZ. Applause NABZ is the National Advertising Benevolent Society, and it's a charity that believes no member of the Canadian media, marketing or advertising community should ever be left behind. NABZ is a safe haven when people need support or financial assistance due to health reasons, mental health issues or just plain stress.

When the person on the stage said he had called NABZ for help, the NABZ support hotline number appeared on the screen behind him. That's when the audience, me included, realized what this was. NABZ would like to sincerely thank you all for being part of their ad. They're a great organization, and they are the only charity

dedicated to supporting people within the business. Let's support what they do and donate as they need our help just as much as we need theirs. Yes it was a stunt, but I would argue a meaningful one. The executive director of NABZ, Jay Bertram, said they wanted to find a disruptive, impactful way to get their message across. The challenge was, how do you advertise to advertising people who've seen it all? Bertram said that while the speech was fake, the problems discussed by the actor were not.

It was a way to say that people may appear to be doing well, but behind the scenes they could be suffering. And an advertising award show was the perfect setting to deliver that message to the highest achieving people in one of the most pressure-filled industries. The idea was created for NABZ by the Coset Advertising Agency and was filmed as a commercial. It was a risk, but a calculated risk. And I can tell you one thing, I've never forgotten it. I've always said that a public service announcement has to work twice as hard as a regular commercial. They rarely have the media weight behind them, and it's easy to get lost in the clutter. Yet, when advertising agencies apply their creativity to the task, the results are often

brilliant. The goal is usually to raise awareness and generate donations. That's a tough ask, as people suffer from PSA burnout. That's why the creative idea has to be especially powerful. Like watching Margaret Atwood try to burn her famous book, proving the point that important words cannot be extinguished. Hearing the voices of teenagers who were robbed of their lives through gun violence makes the hair on your arms stand up.

Some ideas save lives directly, as the beer coaster idea probably did. Someone somewhere got home safely. And sitting in an audience and hearing someone on stage say they are hanging on by their fingertips can be an emotional and searing experience. It's very difficult to move somebody to take action at the best of times, even when you have millions of dollars to spend. And when you don't have millions to spend, the quality of the idea has to do all the heavy lifting

when you're under the influence. I'm Terry O'Reilly. This episode was recorded in the TearStream mobile recording studio. Producer Debbie O'Reilly, Chief Sound Engineer Jeff Devine. Under the influence theme by Casey Pick, Jeremiah Pick, and James Aitin. Tunes provided by APM Music. Follow me at TerryOInfluence. This podcast is powered by Acast. Hey, did you know you can now listen to our podcasts on YouTube? Just search Apostrophe Podcast Network. See you next week. Fun fact. Hi, this is Michael Thompson from Lethbridge, Alberta. Public service announcements are created pro bono for no charge

by advertising agencies, music composers, production companies, and actors. The media time and space is also donated free. If you're a business owner, marketing your company can feel like trying to find a specific needle in a haystack of needles. To help, may I suggest a book I just read? It's titled Dim Sum Strategy, Bite-sized Tools to Build Stronger Brands, written by Peter Wilkin. Peter is a branding expert with over 40 years experience working with the world's top brands.

His book helps you sharpen your marketing, explaining the difference between branding and brand building, the three reasons why brands fail, and why you should use the brand-centered management process to put your brand at the center of your business. That's why I like Peter's book. He distills his thinking down into easily understood practical ideas you can implement directly into your business. His insights are not academic theory, they're battle-tested. Peter offers you experience you normally would

never have access to unless you had an expensive ad agency on Retainer. If you manage a brand, this is the book for you. DIMM SUM Strategy by Peter Wilkin. In print, ebook and audio. Visit PeterWilkin.com, that's PeterWil-N dot com to find out more.