Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly - Ask Terry 2023

Episode Date: June 24, 2023

It’s our final episode of the season already.And as always, we throw the show open to our listeners.And answer your questions.We’ll explore why jingles have disappeared, how old jingles are being used to help Alzheimer’s patients, we’ll talk about Eddie Shack and his Pop Shoppe commercials, why the biggest companies have the dullest ads and we’ll answer that burning question: What ever happened to the “follow the bouncing ball” sing-along commercials. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly. As you may know, we've been producing a lot of bonus episodes while under the influences on hiatus. They're called the Beatleology Interviews, where I talk to people who knew the Beatles, work with them, love them, and the authors who write about them. Well, the Beatleology Interviews have become a hit, so we are spinning it out to be a standalone podcast series. You've already heard conversations with people like actors Mark Hamill, Malcolm McDowell, and Beatles confidant Astrid Kershaw. But coming up, I talk to May Pang, who dated John Lennon in the mid-70s. I talk to double fantasy guitarist Earl Slick, Apple Records creative director John Kosh. I'll be talking to Jan Hayworth,

who designed the Sgt. Pepper album cover. Very cool. And I'll talk to singer Dion, who is one of only five people still alive who were on the Sgt. Pepper cover. And two of those people were Beatles. The stories they tell are amazing. So thank you for making this series such a success. And please, do me a favor, follow the Beatleology interviews on your podcast app. You don't even have to be a huge Beatles fan, you just have to love storytelling.

Subscribe now, and don't miss a single beat. This is an apostrophe podcast production. You're so king in it. You're so king in it. You're so king in it. Your teeth look whiter than no nose You're not you when you're hungry You're a good hand with all the teeth

You're under the influence with Terry O'Reilly. Well, it's our last episode of the season already. And as we do every year, we open the final show up to questions from our amazing listeners. We received the most questions ever this year. As a matter of fact, I was handed 15 pages of questions to pour through. We've tried to squeeze as many as possible into this episode. And if you don't hear your question, know that we simply ran out of time. But we've done our best.

We'll explore why jingles have disappeared, how old jingles are being used to help Alzheimer's patients. We'll talk about Eddie Shack and his pop shop commercials, why the biggest companies have the dullest ads, and we'll answer that burning question, whatever happened to the Follow the Bouncing Balls sing-along commercials? You're under the influence. On Twitter, at OnOneRail asks,

I've always been curious about the arrangers and session musicians involved in commercial soundtracks. I've noticed some amazing arrangements, very professional. Are the musicians well-known, a consistent community, and are they wealthy as a result? Well, the musicians hired to play the music in commercials are some of the best in the country. We often had players from symphony orchestras in our studios, we hired the best jazz players, and we always had the best session players in our recording sessions. These musicians were the most in-demand players in town. And yes, they get paid

royalties, or what's called residuals, for their work. The busiest ones can make a lot of money. And yes, union actors get residuals too. Non-union actors don't, as a rule. The Actors' Union, ACTRA, and the Association of Canadian Advertisers have been locked in a bitter year-long battle over residuals recently.

On a similar note, at JD Novel asks this on Twitter. Why do you think companies have moved away from the jingle? I rarely hear them anymore, but love them or hate them, they really stick in your head. So I'd have thought they'd be a valuable tool. Yep, jingles were a huge part of the advertising landscape going all the way back to the 1930s and 40s. The purpose of a jingle wasn't so much to persuade someone to choose a product, but instead to remind them to use a product. There was very little persuasive language in a jingle, but they were created to be earworms, catchy and sticky. So if you were standing in front of a grocery shelf full of toothpaste back in the day, for example, this jingle might pop into your mind. You'll wonder where the yellow went when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent, Pepsodent,

Pepsodent. And that little reminder just might make you reach for Pepsodent. By the way, you might recognize the first line of this old jingle. Your teeth look whiter than new, new, new. Ha ha. Now you know where that comes from. There have been many great

jingles over the decades. But jingles fell completely out of favor in the 1980s. The emergence of MTV and much music saw to that, along with the huge sales from the soundtrack to movies like The Big Chill. Suddenly, songs old and new became very hip in commercials, and artists started licensing their music catalogs to advertisers for the first time. Like Marvin Gaye's classic song for California Raisins. I heard it through the grapevine

Raised in the California sunshine California Raisins from the California vineyards Don't you know I heard it through the grapevine? Sounds great, doesn't it? A few years before that, you could not have got I Heard It Through the Grapevine for a commercial. But the zeitgeist changed, and artists saw big paychecks being waved in front of their noses.

I remember doing work for Chevrolet when Bob Seger's song Like a Rock was being used in truck commercials. I asked the Detroit creative director on Chevrolet how much they were paying Seger for that song. He said, Let me put it this way. They back a Brinks truck up to his door every year. But once advertisers started licensing hit songs,

jingles fell out of favor and were considered cheesy and old school. But you can't argue with their effectiveness. On the subject of jingles, I read a fascinating article last week. In Puerto Rico, old advertising jingles are being used to treat Alzheimer patients. As we all know, music has a remarkable ability to transport us back to a particular time and place in our histories. They are time stamps in our collective memory. Music from the past is also known to bring back memories and ease symptoms in middle-stage Alzheimer patients. The Puerto Rico Alzheimer Association partnered with radio stations there

to search through an 80-year-old jingle archive. From the archive, they pulled out the most famous jingles, then compiled personal playlists. Caregivers could access JingleTherapy.org to generate personalized playlists just by entering their patient's birth date, identifying the ones that help them remember, rest, and ease their daily symptoms. In this case study video, you can see patients listening to old jingles with headphones, smiling and singing along.

The jingles help patients recall fond memories from their youth. They stimulated emotional sensations, and the more the jingle therapy progressed, the greater the results. In over 600 patients, the effect on cognitive measures was considerable, with significant improvement in memory, orientation, depression, and anxiety. To date, 12 different health centers in Puerto Rico have incorporated jingle therapy as part of their daily routine. On Twitter, Eric Campbell asks, Why are there way more truck ads during hockey broadcasts than during baseball broadcasts?

To answer this, I reached out to Lauren Richards, one of the top media people in the ad business. According to research, hockey attracts more potential truck buyers than baseball by a wide margin. The average hockey-viewing adult is 23% more likely than the average Canadian to be in the market to purchase or lease a truck, compared to the average baseball viewer, who is 15% less likely than the average Canadian to be in the market to lease or purchase a truck. So, Eric, there you are. Here's another fun question from Twitter.

At bchafe10 asks, Would Windex be smart to extend their product line to include windshield washer fluid? If the new product is sufficiently similar to the main product benefit and won't weaken the main brand's meaning, it could work. But while being similar, the new product must have a functionally different use than the main brand. So, if a coffee maker who manufactures regular coffee extends its line to include flavored coffees, it could work. And if you use that logic, Windex cleans household windows so a new variation sold as windshield washer fluid makes complete sense.

Similar, but different enough not to confuse shoppers. I like the idea. At Terry Pichet asks, How much did Eddie Shack increase Pop Shop's bottom line with his commercials? Ah, Eddie Shack, who hailed from my hometown of Sudbury, Ontario, by the way. Eddie was a character. He played in the NHL from 1957 to 1975. I remember when he got the puck,

he would scream all the way down the ice. Too funny. He was such a colorful personality, Brian McFarlane, the Hockey Night in Canada broadcaster, even wrote a song about Eddie.

Clear the track, here comes Shaq. He knocks him down and he gives him a whack. and Canada broadcaster, even wrote a song about Eddie. It hit the charts in February of 1966, went straight to number one, and stayed there for two weeks. Eddie Shack was known as the entertainer, and Pop Shop wanted to leverage his big personality. Pop Shop was started in London, Ontario in 1969.

It pioneered the concept of cash-and-carry pop. It was number one in selling pop by the case. In the mid-70s, it hired Eddie to be their spokesman. Maybe I didn't go far in school, but there's one thing I've learned from my mom and dad. Look after the nickels and dimes, and the dollars will look after themselves. Right? Right on! They've got big bottles, too. Each commercial ended with Eddie making fun of his magnificent proboscis. And I've got a nose for value. Eventually, Eddie Schack became vice president of marketing

for Pop Shop, and his commercials helped the company grow in leaps and bounds. According to Pop Shop, the company grew to eventually have over 500 stores in Canada, the U.S., and Australia, and offered 26 flavors in refillable bottles. Then came the cola wars between Pepsi and Coke in the 1980s, followed by the emergence of private label soft drinks

in grocery stores. It would signal the end of Pop Shop in 1983. But Pop Shop Pop started showing up again in 2004, and you can still find it in quite a few grocery stores.

And someone wants to know why politicians can air such negative commercials about their opponents. On Facebook, Colin Boehner asks, How do U.S. politicians get away with being so critical of their opponents in their television ads, as well as other campaign advertisements? Seems bluntly brutal in some circumstances. Well, Colin, there is a simple reason for this. In political advertising, there are really no rules and no regulations. Unlike other categories like food, alcohol, or pharmaceutical advertising, there are no parameters.

Other than that, the one stipulation for U.S. candidates running for federal office is that they must claim responsibility for ads they have paid for. I'm Ted Budd, and I approve this message. I approve this message is a Federal Election Commission provision that requires candidates to stand by your ad.

It must come at the end of the commercial, it must be on screen for four seconds, and it must be readable. The hope was that by claiming responsibility for a message, it would tone down the negativity in political ads. But, as we all know, that didn't work. Kent Onofrechuk has an interesting question. How has the line of what is acceptable and not acceptable in marketing shifted over generations?

Is that line a good dance partner for an advertiser to play with? Well, Kent, so much has shifted over the generations in the ad biz. In some ways, it's gotten looser, and in other ways, it's become much more conservative. Back in the day, before the year 2000, let's say, advertisers had to watch their P's and Q's. While you could be somewhat suggestive, the language had to be absolutely clean.

However, when it came to beer advertising, scantily clad women populated most commercials. I never wanted to do that kind of advertising and always presented humor with no bikinis. But beer clients back in the 80s would just point to research. When beer drinkers were asked if they'd like to see more bikini-free humor in commercials, or more bikinis, they always voted for bikinis.

So, I was shown the door. While I did manage to do some funny commercials for some beer brands, bikini-free, I realized I wasn't the right guy for that category. Now, today, a commercial filled with bikinis would be highly inappropriate. Yet, what is deemed acceptable language has gotten looser. Take this ad for Kmart. You hear that? I can ship my pants for free.

Wow, I just may ship my pants. Yeah, ship your pants. Billy, you can ship your pants, too. I can't wait to ship my pants, Dad. I just shipped my pants, and it's very my pants, Dad. I just shipped my pants and it's very convenient. Very convenient. I just shipped my drawers. I just shipped my nightie.

I just shipped my bed. If you can't find what you're looking for in store, we'll find it at Kmart.com right now and ship it to you for free. I don't think I could have gotten away with that commercial in the 1980s. Another thing that has changed is in the automobile category. When I was working on car commercials back in the day, you could not show a car speeding, squealing, or skidding. It was strictly forbidden.

If we tried that, the commercials would never have cleared the regulators, and TV stations would have refused to run them. But today, I see that kind of aggressive driving in commercials all the time. So, somewhere along the line, that rule has been loosened. Is playing close

to the bleeding edge a good dance partner for brands? Well, it can be. If the commercials are smart and daring and bold, but know how to touch the line without blasting through it, I think that can definitely work. When you see commercials that are boring and annoying, that is an advertiser who is afraid of being bold. But when I see a bold ad that is smart, or even a bold ad that almost works but doesn't quite get there, I applaud that advertiser. At least they're trying to do something different.

Speaking of beer, Neil McPherson remembered a beer campaign I once worked on. Neil says, Years ago you devoted an episode to a New England beer for which you did a campaign. The signature whistle from the ad became popular and bar patrons would order it just by whistling the three notes. What was the name of the beer and is it still around? Good memory, Neil. We were approached by a small micro brewery in the state of Maine.

They wanted an unusual advertising idea to launch a new beer called Sparhawk Golden Ale. Here was the key feature. The beer was made for the residents of Maine, not the tourists. So our task was to advertise to Mainers without the tourists hearing the campaign.

On radio. Just a bit tricky. But we figured out a solution. Before the tourists arrived, we ran commercials telling the people of Maine that Sparhawk was a new, refreshing beer that was made for them, not the tourists. Then we said, from this point on, you will never hear a commercial for Sparhawk. Instead, you will hear this code sound. When you hear that whistle, it means we've brewed a new batch of Sparhawk.

Come and get it. Well, the client was understandably nervous, as the bulk of his campaign didn't even mention his beer by name. But we had a hunch the people of Maine would get it and play along. And boy, did they ever. People began ordering the beer at bars by just whistling those three notes. It was so successful, a May newspaper dedicated an entire full-page article to Sparhawk,

just before the tourist season began, thankfully. The beer became so popular, it was eventually bought out by a bigger brewery. But when I googled Sparhawk for this show, it sadly appears the beer is no longer available. What a shame. But what a great client we had. On Facebook, Sarah R. Davis Lim says,

Some of the biggest companies have the dullest ads. Is it just being complacent? Death by committee? Fear of alienating some segment of the customers by having a strong personality? Well, excellent question, Sarah. While there are probably many answers to that question, the overriding one, in my opinion,

is that the bigger the company, the thicker the bureaucracy. It is death by committee. A lot of middle managers in marketing departments run scared. They have the power to say no, but no power to say yes. And everybody wants to put their fingerprints on an idea. So a good idea can die from a thousand paper cuts. A long time ago, a CEO complained he wasn't getting enough good thinking from his advertising agency. The creative director had a great response. He said, even though we have a four-inch flow at our end, only a two-inch stream gets pumped to you. In other words, the marketing manager between the CEO and the advertising agency was not good. The marketing department at many companies is a

catch-all place. When people want a promotion and companies don't know where to put them, they often drop them into marketing. And they often have zero advertising instincts. I can't tell you how many times I saw that happen. That is a huge reason why there is so much bad advertising. Sorry, I calls them like I sees them. Douglas McTaggart has this to say. My question is,

what is the origin of the bouncing ball sing-along commercial? The bouncing ball seems to have fallen flat since the 70s, kicked to the marketing curb, and in a fadeaway lost to time. Its demise is a mystery for inquiring minds. Douglas also sent along this old Libby's Beans commercial that has a song and a bouncing ball so people could sing along at home. Sing along with Libby. What makes you taste what's tingle all the way?

Libby's Beans, the deep brown flavored way. The sauce is perfect to each and every beat. Just eat them and you'll see what we mean. Getting people to sing along with a jingle was a great way of embedding it in their minds. Follow the Bouncing Ball has a very interesting history. It was first used in short films. The Bouncing Ball was created by the Fleischer Brothers way back in the 1920s.

They founded a pioneering animation studio, probably most famous for their Betty Boop character. The brothers released a series of sing-along films. During the 1920s, before sound, films were often accompanied by an organist or an orchestra and the music was performed live. When the projectionist was changing reels, or before and after the main feature, lyrics were shown on the screens and audiences sang along. The Fleischer brothers pioneered a way to film sing-alongs in those early days of motion pictures.

They printed white song lyrics on a black drum that was slowly turned by hand, and one Fleischer brother would don a black glove and hold a black stick with a white ball on the end. He would physically bounce the ball over the appropriate lyrics, solving the previous problem of imperfect synchronization. Those sing-alongs were the first audience participation films. They were very popular during the war, as community singing helped bolster morale. In those early days, animated characters were filmed singing, and a bouncing ball would invite the audience to sing along. Keep your eye on the little bouncing balls. Each little string will make you

sing if you follow the tune of the silvery moon. Later, famous singers like Ethel Merman would invite the public to sing along with her. Come sing along with me

to the melody. It's so easy to recall. And while your voices ring, won't you keep following the little bouncing ball? Come on, everybody, and join me. I'm on my path. It didn't take long for Madison Avenue to spot a good thing when they saw it. So the bouncing ball was added to theatrical commercials,

like this one for the 1931 Oldsmobile. Many people thought the automobile would never replace the horse, but it certainly took the place of the parlor sofa on a Sunday afternoon. Those old cars looked funny, but they struggled along in spite of the horse laughs. Let's all sing about the old Olds that's still rolling right along. Now follow the ball. Young Johnny Steel has an Oldsmobile. He loves a dear little girl. years later in the mid 1950s

the bouncing ball sing-alongs were sold to the new medium of television now people could sit in the comfort of their homes and sing along over time more and more commercials were created using the Fleischer Brothers bouncing ball just like the Libby's Beans commercial Douglas referenced in his question. But like the jingle, the bouncing ball eventually fell out of favor

sometime in the late 70s when musical tastes started to change. But in its day, it was a very effective technique to embed a catchy song in someone's mind and attach that sticky song to a brand. Thanks for all the great questions and thank you to our listeners for all the wonderful support you give our show. We truly appreciate it.

Some of the questions you send in are actually great episode ideas, so keep your ears peeled next season. This is the end of our 12th season of Under the Influence

and our 18th on CBC. I'd like to take a moment now to thank our amazing Under the Influence team who work their hearts out for you every week. Our incredible producer who manages everything that happens in the Terrastream mobile recording studio

is the wonderful Debbie O'Reilly. The man who makes us sound good every week is our chief sound engineer, Jeff Devine. Those two wandering minstrels of our theme song are composers Ari Posner and Ian Lefevre. It would be impossible to do this show

without our incredibly resourceful researchers. They are Allison Pinches, Abby Forsyth, Patrick James Aslan, and Terry O'Sullivan. Our groovy graphic designer

is Callie Rae O'Reilly. The lady who tells you that you're under the influence every week is Angela Bottas. The lady who suggests you take a dive into our archives every week is Sydney O'Reilly. At Sturdy Hugh asked, who is the voice actor who does our fun fact

segment at the end of our shows? Hugh says his voice sounds so familiar. Well, Sturdy Hugh, our wonderful fun Hugh says his voice sounds so familiar. Well, sturdy Hugh. Our wonderful fun fact man is Frank LaPrey. Frank is one of the top voiceover actors in the ad biz. That's why he's so familiar.

Thanks also to our podcast partner, Acast, for all their support. And last but not least, thank you to the good folks at CBC for all their support over the years but not least, thank you to the good folks at CBC for all their support over the years. We will be airing some archived Age of Persuasion episodes over the summer,

so stay tuned. Be safe. We'll see you in January. I'm Terry O'Reilly. Fun fact. Terry O'Reilly and I grew up together in Sudbury, Ontario. It was fun.

And that's a fact.