Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly - Busiest Day Of The Year

Episode Date: March 29, 2025

This week, we ask an interesting question: What is the busiest day of the year for pizza delivery companies, Airbnb, Emergency Rooms, Maternity Wards, restaurants and dating apps? What is the busiest day of the year for weddings? And what is the busiest day of the year for… plumbers? It’s all fascinating – and often very surprising. 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. Have you ever just needed a fresh start?

That's exactly what Siya, a young Inuit woman, is looking for in Netflix's new comedy series, North of North. From one of the most remote communities in the world, comes a universally relatable and heartwarming comedy about one underdog's journey to reinvent herself. But it's not going to be easy when everyone in her small town knows her business. Netflix's first Canadian series, North of North,

launches April 10th on Netflix. North of North launches April 10th on Netflix. Here's a question. How can you support Canada while you sleep? Well, you can do it by sleeping on a Douglas mattress, the mattress designed and manufactured right here in Canada. Douglas mattresses start at just $599 and come with a free comfort sleep bundle which includes two memory foam pillows, a waterproof mattress protector and an

entire cotton sheet set. And how's this for risk-free Canadian convenience? You can enjoy a Douglas mattress for a 365 night in-home trial. You don't love it. Douglas will pick up the mattress for free, donate it to a local charity and refund you in full. No hassle, no risk. Douglas has been named Canada's best mattress by Canadian Living and is loved by 250,000 sound sleepers like me. Don't wait! Visit Douglas.ca slash under the influence to claim this exclusive offer for Canadian listeners with free shipping. Sleep better knowing your mattress is made in Canada. Douglas mattress, Canada's best mattress.

At Edward Jones they do money differently. They seek to understand their clients' priorities, learning about their goals at a personal level, before they even begin to provide any advice, working to build relationships and helping develop strategies that support a client's financial goals. By taking a wellness approach to finance, Edward Jones focuses on how financial health

plays as much of a role in a fulfilled life as any other aspect of personal health. And Edward Jones provides balance and perspective, reminding us all in these interesting times that money is a method of achieving goals, not the end goal itself. If you want to do money differently, go to edwardjones.ca. You can listen to this episode ad-free on Amazon Music. This is an Apostrophe podcast production. We're going to show you our big new Studebaker. Start the car!

Mamma Mia, that's a spicy meatball. What love doesn't conquer, Alka-Seltzer will. What a relief! You're under the influence of Terry O'Reilly. Thanksgiving is a very interesting day of the year. In 1957, the Governor General of Canada, Vincent Massey, issued a proclamation stating that Thanksgiving was to be observed on the second Monday in October. In the U.S., Thanksgiving is celebrated later, specifically the fourth Thursday in November. The biggest reason our Thanksgiving is earlier than the American one is simple.

The Canadian harvest happens earlier. It's interesting to note that the original Pilgrim Thanksgiving in the 1600s began as a day of fasting. Ironic, as it is now the day many of us consume the most calories of the year. Back in 1846, Sarah Josepha Hale, the woman who wrote Mary Had a Little Lamb, began a campaign to make Thanksgiving a national holiday in the States. She spent 17 years writing letters to presidents and other politicians advocating for the day. Abraham Lincoln finally proclaimed Thanksgiving as a national holiday in 1863, choosing a date connected to the annual harvest.

Lincoln also hoped the official holiday would help unite the nation after the Civil War. Some historians say the very first Thanksgiving in North America actually happened in 1579, after the safe landing of Martin Frobisher's fleet in Newfoundland. President Franklin D. Roosevelt actually changed the date of Thanksgiving in the U.S. He moved it up a week. Roosevelt wanted to extend the holiday shopping season and stimulate the economy. Retailers were concerned the critical shopping season between Thanksgiving and Christmas was too short.

Not everybody was happy with Franklin Roosevelt's date change and referred to it, sarcastically, as Frank's Giving. So in 1941, Congress finally passed a resolution making the date of Thanksgiving the fourth Thursday of November. So many rituals have a direct connection to marketing and commerce. Today, Thanksgiving is one of the busiest travel days of the year. Over 40% of Canadians hit the road and 80 million Americans travel during that time. By the way, Turkey wasn't a part of Thanksgiving dinners for over 200 years. It was mostly venison, seafood, and the odd duck or goose. But again, Sarah Josepha

Hale, who campaigned so hard for the holiday, also wrote extensively about Thanksgiving and always featured turkey as the center of her ideal Thanksgiving day meal. It eventually caught on. Plus, a turkey could feed a whole family. We've mentioned this before, but the Butterball Turkey Hotline receives over 100,000 calls during Thanksgiving. The hotline started as a marketing gimmick 44 years ago, but has grown into a seasonal lifeline for panicky home chefs when the turkey comes out of the freezer. It is the busiest day

of the year for those turkey wizards. You're probably wondering why I'm talking about Thanksgiving at this time of the year. Well, today we look at the busiest days of the year for a variety of industries and services, from restaurants to emergency rooms to pizza delivery to plumbers. And as you'll soon see, Thanksgiving has an outsized presence in today's show. And it's kind of surprising. Cast your mind back. Back to 1994. June 17th, 1994 to be exact. O.J. Simpson was supposed to turn himself into the L.A. Police Department by 11 a.m. that day. Murder charges had been filed. The arraignment was to be scheduled for

that afternoon. By noon, OJ had not shown up. At 1 50 p.m., the LAPD declared OJ Simpson a fugitive. At 5 51, Simpson made a cell phone call from a white Ford Bronco. The call was traced to a freeway in Orange County. At 5.56 p.m., the California Highway Patrol began pursuit. Now here we are on the 91 freeway, 40 miles an hour, broad daylight. Police have set up a rolling roadblock in a sense. They're trying to clear the highway around Simpson.

For the next 90 minutes, what unfolded was something viewers had never seen before. It was a low-speed car chase on the 405 freeway in Los Angeles, as Simpson's white Ford Bronco was being followed by over a dozen police cars. Later, at his Brentwood home, O.J. Simpson was taken into custody at 8.47 p.m. That low-speed car chase was watched live by a reported 95 million people. To put that in context, it rivaled the Super Bowl for TV ratings. Because it was dinner time on the West Coast and later on the east coast, people sat glued

to their televisions. And because nobody wanted to miss a moment of this bizarre event, no one went out for dinner and millions didn't want to make dinner. So they ordered pizza. That day, June 17, 1994, ended up being the busiest day in Domino's Pizza history. Strange things happen when strange things happen. Speaking of pizza, here's a multiple choice question for you. What is the busiest day of the year for pizza deliveries?

New Year's Eve? Halloween? Or Super Bowl Sunday? The answer is Halloween. Parents all over North America are busy that night, taking little trick-or-treaters out around the neighborhood and greeting ghosts and goblins at the front door. So many parents opt for a quick and easy dinner. And pizza orders surge.

Have you ever wondered what the busiest day of the year is for plumbers? Probably not, but I think about this stuff all the time. The answer is kind of surprising. In the US, it's the Friday after Thanksgiving in November. It's called Black Friday, but plumbers there call it Brown Friday. Here's the really good news. It's not for the reason you're thinking right now. The reason plumbers call it Brown Friday is because millions of people clog their kitchen sinks with turkey grease, vegetable skins, rice, and other food items on that day.

And calls to plumbers explode. Well sir, one day I was cooking chicken for some folks going on a boat ride, and I decided to try a little change in my chicken recipe to plumbers explode. Well, the minute I tasted that chicken, I knew I'd made the best fried chicken that had ever been cooked. That's Colonel Sanders you're listening to. As you know, he made his 11 herbs and spices finger-licking good. But did you know that KFC has a busiest day of the year? And that day is Mother's Day. Kind of surprising.

According to data provided by Yum Brands, the company that owns KFC, the chicken joint sells 50% more chicken on Mother's Day than any other day of the year. And apparently, it's not even close. While Mother's Day is the third biggest retail holiday, it's number one with a bucket at KFC. There are several reasons for the rush of moms at KFC. First of all, KFC markets heavily to moms on Facebook in the four days leading up to Mother's Day. It also targets dads who are looking for Mother's Day ideas.

And KFC restaurants offer a convenient and affordable option for a lot of families. Hilariously, KFC recently gave away free copies of a romance novel aimed at women titled Tender Wings of Desire. The harlequin-like cover showed a buff Colonel Sanders being embraced by a woman with a chicken drumstick in her hand. Alarming. A YouTube video was created with a shirtless hunk reading from the novella. This Mother's Day, let Colonel Sanders take care of dinner and mom's fantasies by giving her tender wings of desire. Sometimes it seemed as though Madeleine and Colonel Sanders

had been made to love each other, and they tried to do so at every given opportunity. Hello. And she knew in that exact moment what it meant to feel love. That gives a whole new meaning to legs, breasts, and thighs. Speaking of unusual KFC moments, Christmas Eve is the busiest day of the year for KFC in Japan. As a matter of fact, December 24th is ten times busier than any other day of the year for KFC,

and it's been that way since the 1970s. Here's how it happened. Back in the 60s, Christmas was initially celebrated there as a day for children with cakes and treats. Then one day, a foreign visitor to Tokyo walked into a KFC store and said he couldn't find a turkey, so he had no choice but to celebrate Christmas with Kentucky Fried Chicken. A KFC executive overheard the conversation and wondered if it could become a Christmas tradition. So the next season, KFC advertised its first Christmas campaign along with the slogan, Kentucky for Christmas.

The campaign was a hit and Kentucky for Christmas is a tradition that lives on to this day. And every December, statues of Colonel Sanders outside the KFC locations are decorated in Santa attire and KFC buckets come with festive designs. People pre-order and make reservations as early as October because come December 24th, it is KFC Japan's busiest day of the year. When we come back, the steamiest day of the year for dating apps. Have you ever just needed a fresh start? That's exactly what Siya, a young Inuit woman, is looking for in Netflix's new comedy series,

North of North. From one of the most remote communities in the world comes a universally relatable and heartwarming comedy about one underdog's journey to reinvent herself. But it's not going to be easy when everyone in her small town knows her business. Netflix's first Canadian series, North of North, launches April 10th on Netflix. Dating apps are extremely popular these days. And did you know there is a busiest day of the year for apps like Tinder and Hinge? It's true.

Here's a hint. It's not Valentine's Day. The day in question actually has a name. It's called Dating Sunday. According to reports, this landmark day in the dating world always lands on the first Sunday in January. Take the Christmas holidays, throw in a little holiday loneliness, and you've got the perfect recipe for pent-up desire.

Dating apps routinely experience a surge on Dating Sunday. It's been called the Super Bowl of online dating. Last year, Hinge reported a 27% increase in likes sent on this day and a 29% rise in messages sent. On Tinder, user likes, which indicate that you want to match with someone, were 15% higher on the first Sunday in January than the rest of the year. There's a reason for all those Cupid arrows.

According to Hinge's love and connection expert, now there's an interesting business card, the new year marks a shift from one chapter to the next and offers people the chance to reboot. It's the time of the year that brings hope, promise for renewal, and resolutions to meet someone new. The rise in app use stays relatively consistent until mid-February, as January 1st to Valentine's Day is considered peak season for dating apps. Tinder said during that six-week period, 486 bios are edited per minute

and 298 million more likes are sent than the rest of the year. But nothing beats Dating Sunday. Speaking of dating and finding your soul mate or overnight mate, there is one day of the year where the most sex happens. I'll give you a hint. It's different for everyone, but the same for everyone. If you guessed birthday sex, you are correct. In a poll conducted with over 5,000 people, a whopping 79% admitted to having birthday

sex. Birthday sex outperformed every other day of the year. My birthday is in July, which is a long, long way away. Coming in hot in second place was Valentine's Day at 73%. Anniversaries and vacations came in next, followed, interestingly, by makeup sex after a heated argument. Happy birthday, my love. Dating apps sometimes lead to marriages. The Knot, a website dedicated to all things wedding, did a survey recently.

The busiest day of the year for weddings is the third Saturday of September. By a long shot. My sister-in-law Laura is a licensed wedding officiant. Many of the weddings she officiates happen outdoors or lakeside. Just as the knot says, the third Saturday in September is, by far, her busiest day of the year. She says she could easily marry 30 couples on that day if time permitted. The third Saturday of September is kind of a perfect day for an outdoor wedding.

It's still warm enough for nice wedding attire. The bugs are gone and it doesn't conflict with any long weekends. Plus, the sun sets quite late, ideal for lots of good photos. The Knot says the other four busiest days for weddings are all the Saturdays in October. So, if you're planning a wedding, know that those are the busiest dates for securing a wedding venue. By the way, the number one wedding song, according to the Knot, is Can't Help Falling in Love by Elvis Presley. The King Still Rains. With all those marriages going on, it can only mean one thing.

A visit from the stork. There is a fertility tracking app called Kindara. The app analyzed 1.5 million bits of data users collected about their sexual activity. From that data, it determined that, aside from birthdays, the most active time for making whoopee is around New Year's. The app also determined that a higher percentage of babies are born on September 9th than any other date. It's simple math. To prove how popular September is, of the ten most common birthdays, 9 of them occur in September. The only other date on that list is July 7th, which happens to be my birthday.

Weird. So if your kid seems to share a birthday with half of her classmates, you're not imagining things. You just had a very happy new year. Speaking of being on fire, when we come back, the busiest day of the year for fire departments. Have you ever just needed a fresh start? That's exactly what Siya, a young Inuit woman, is looking for in Netflix's new comedy series, North of North. From one of the most remote communities in the world,

comes a universally relatable and heartwarming comedy about one underdog's journey to reinvent herself. But it's not going to be easy when everyone in her small town knows her business. Netflix's first Canadian series, North of North, launches April 10th on Netflix. Even fire departments have a busiest day of the year. In Canada, for a long time, the busiest fire day of the year was Halloween. Lots of stoves left unattended as trick-or-treaters knock on the door, and some tricks turned out to be hotter than expected. In the U.S., Thanksgiving is the peak day for home cooking fires.

It has three times the daily average. Unattended stoves were, far and away, the leading contributor to cooking fires. Shockingly, cooking causes half of all home fires, 42% of home fire injuries, and 20% of all home fire deaths. Speaking of Thanksgiving, which has a lot of mentions in this episode today, the festive family event has a big day on social media because Thanksgiving is the busiest day of the year on Instagram, which makes sense as Instagram has a food photo obsession and it's a time for families to gather, so there's a lot of picture taking going on. The busiest day of the year for Airbnb in Canada

and the US is also, yep, Thanksgiving. Many travelers either visit family or take a family trip during Thanksgiving. Christmas is the second busiest day of the year for Airbnb followed by New Year's Eve. When it comes to Uber and taxi cabs, the busiest days of the year don't line up with Airbnb. Looking at the list, I would say alcohol has a lot to do with hailing a ride. The busiest day of the year for Uber and taxis is, you guessed it, New Year's Day. Which would be any time after the countdown at midnight.

Makes sense. People have been partying and imbibing and don't want to drink and drive. That's why it's always so hard to hail a cab or an Uber on New Year's. It's the busiest day of the year for the industry. In the US, the second busiest time of the year for rides is Super Bowl Sunday. Again, I suspect alcohol has something to do with that. St. Patrick's Day is also on the list for both countries for obvious reasons. Interestingly, when it comes to hailing a ride, Thanksgiving and New Year's Eve are

at the bottom of the list. Emergency rooms are always busy. Thankfully, many ERs give you a wait time approximation on their websites so you know what you're in for and if it's not urgent, you can time your visit to one of the least busy times. So, what is the busiest day of the year for emergency rooms? Some ERs say it's the first regular Monday after Christmas. Other ERs say it's Boxing Day.

A lot of people think Christmas Day is the busiest day of the year in emergency rooms, but it's actually the quietest day of the year, as a rule. It's the calm before the storm, and Boxing Day is the storm. There are a number of reasons for this. First, many people who suddenly need to see a doctor will put it off until the day after Christmas. Second, families get together with elderly relatives who they may not have seen for a while. And if there's something wrong with Grandma, the younger family members might not realize

it until she visits on Christmas Day. Lastly, a lot of doctor's offices, walk-in clinics, and urgent care clinics are closed on Christmas Day. So, the emergency room is the only option. The busiest day for veterinarians is very different from ER doctors. Again, we return to our recurring theme of Thanksgiving. It appears that pets, especially dogs, get into a lot of food that is prepared or left over on that day.

So the day after Thanksgiving is often the busiest day of the year for vets. Turkey bones can create splinters that can puncture gastrointestinal tracts. Ham bones are just as dangerous and can result in a $3,000 emergency surgery bill. And according to vets, it's not just poultry bones that are problematic. Turkey skin and ham are too high in fat for dogs to properly digest, onions and garlic cause anemia, nutmeg can cause central nervous system damage, and alcohol is not good for dogs,

regardless of what your dog tells you. One of the most valued skills in marketing is the ability to spot patterns. Most marketing is based on that information. Patterns allow for planning, and understanding what leads to those patterns is endlessly interesting. Plumbers are busiest the day after Thanksgiving who knew but plumbers know and plan accordingly More pizzas are delivered on Halloween than on Super Bowl Sunday who knew But pizza companies know and prepare accordingly Mother's Day is the busiest day for KFC. Who knew? But it makes sense because Mother's Day is the busiest day of the year for all restaurants.

So KFC markets accordingly. Patterns illuminate behavior. Behavior informs marketing decisions, and marketers plan accordingly. And in a few instances, marketing dictates behavior, as Roosevelt proved when he moved the date of Thanksgiving to prolong the shopping season. I have spent 44 years studying marketing and I'm still captivated by it

because at the end of the day, it is the study of human nature when you're under the influence. I'm Terry O'Reilly. This episode was recorded in the TerarStream mobile recording studio. Our busiest day of the year is usually January 6th, the day we return to air. 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, and Let's Be Social, follow me at TerryOInfluence.

This podcast is powered by Acast. If you want to read next week's fun fact, just go to apostrophepodcasts.ca and follow the prompts. It's easy. See you next week. Fun fact! Hi, this is Vishal Barshini from Vancouver, BC. Thanksgiving is a statutory holiday in Canada,

except in the provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, PEI, and Newfoundland and Labrador. Here's a question. How can you support Canada while you sleep? Well, you can do it by sleeping on a Douglas mattress, the mattress designed and manufactured right here in Canada. Douglas mattresses start at just $599 and come with a free comfort sleep bundle which includes two memory foam pillows, a waterproof mattress protector and an entire cotton sheet set. And how's this for risk-free Canadian

convenience? You can enjoy a Douglas mattress for a 365 night in-home trial. You don't love it. Douglas will pick up the mattress for free, donate it to a local charity and refund you in full. No hassle, no risk. Douglas has been named Canada's best mattress by Canadian Living and is loved by 250,000 sound sleepers like me. Don't wait! Visit Douglas.ca slash under the influence to claim this exclusive offer for Canadian listeners

with free shipping. Sleep better knowing your mattress is made in Canada. Douglas Mattress, Canada's best mattress. Have you ever just needed a fresh start? That's exactly what Siya, a young Inuit woman, is looking for in Netflix new comedy series, North of North. From one of the most remote communities in the world comes a universally relatable and

heartwarming comedy about one underdog's journey to reinvent herself. But it's not going to be easy when everyone in her small town knows her business. Netflix's first Canadian series, North of North, launches April 10th on Netflix.