Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly - Debut Commercials - Part Two

Episode Date: May 16, 2026

It’s part two of our episode that revisits the very first commercials ever produced for famous products.From the very first commercial for something called the Big Mac, to the first TV ad for a new doll called Barbie, we take a trip back in time. Including the very first commercials starring a couple of struggling actors who would go on to win Academy Awards. 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.

Hi, I'm Callie. I'm a co-founder of Apostrophy Podcasts alongside Terry, Debbie, and Sydney. We're a family business that brings you a family of podcasts. We also have a subscription option, where you can listen ad-free, hear bonus episodes like my sit-down with Terry to ask him burning questions, or extended versions of Under the Influence episodes. Just visit the link in the description to subscribe. This is an apostrophe podcast production. We're going to show you our big new studebaker. That's a spicy meatball. What love doesn't conquer.

Alka-Seltzer will. What a relief. You're under the influence with Terry O'Reilly. The three most notable jumps performed in modern figure skating are named for their originators. The Sal cow for Ulrich Salcow. The Axel for Axel Paulson. And the Lutz for Alloy's Lod. Lutz, the Australian who performed the first single Lutz in public in 1913.

Lutz was only 15 years old at the time. Every figure skating jump is assigned a recognized level of difficulty, which is then factored into the skater's final score. The rules of competition state that the skater must not only execute the takeoff and aerial components of the jump, they must also land flawlessly. and the luts is recognized as the most difficult jump. To perform the luts, a figure skater begins by picking up speed in a wide arc. As the arc is nearly completed, the skater must use their toe pick for propulsion

to drive their body counter-rotational, which means the skater sets it up by twisting one way and jumping in the other. As the athlete moves from the back edge of one skate, to the back edge of the opposite skate, the skater will perform a single, double, or triple rotation. While single and double luts jumps were performed often over the years, the first triple luts in international competition wasn't attempted until 49 years later, and it took a Canadian to do it.

Going into the 1962 World Championships in Prague, 21-year-old Donald Jackson of Oshawa, Ontario, had won the Canadian men's championship four years in a row. But this international event was not going to be easy. The competition was fierce. After the compulsory figures, Jackson trailed Carol Devine of Czechoslovakia. The only chance Jackson had of winning was in the five-minute freestyle event, and he would have to receive extremely high marks from some very tough judges. Donald Jackson did an extraordinary thing. He made the decision to begin his freestyle performance with a triple lutz.

It had never been done in international competition. The reason? The degree of difficulty was just too high. And if Donald Jackson had any chance of winning, he would have to give the performance of his life. life. As soon as the music started, Jackson began his wide arc to build up speed. Then came the moment of liftoff. Here it comes. Beautiful. He made it. It's fantastic. You've just seen something that has never happened in world competition before. No man has ever done that maneuver before in the

world championships. It was a groundbreaking moment. But Donald Jackson didn't just give the performance of his life, he gave one of the greatest performances of all time. He landed every jump flawlessly. At the end of his performance, the crowd jumped to their feet. A standing ovation now from 18,000 people for Donald Jackson of Canada. When Jackson skated over to be interviewed, the TV host could hardly contain himself. The audience is roaring approval. Congratulations, Donnie, on the greatest performance of your career.

Thank you very much. I was really pleased. Would you have a smile on your face from ear to ear? Well, after that triple it, I think I'd have it any time. I think that was the greatest jump I have ever seen. Thank you, Dick. But then a sense of tension swept over the crowd. Wood Jackson get the marks he needed to win.

He was way behind Carol Devine on points. Then, the judges held up their cards. A six, a five eight, another six, another six, five, nine. Another six. Five, nine. A six. Six. And another six.

That's without doubt that the greatest number of six is ever given. Congratulations, Don Jackson. Thank you very much, Dick. I'm glad I could do it for Canada. It was a remarkable result from an extraordinary performance. Don Jackson of Canada has done it. With what may have been the greatest single skating performance of all time, he has come from far behind to beat out Harold the Eve of Czechoslovak.

and Don Jackson is the new world champion. The humble Donald Jackson not only demonstrated grace under pressure, he had attempted something no other skater had ever done before. It was a historic first. Today, it's part two of our episode on marketing firsts. Specifically, the very first commercials ever produce for popular products and companies. From the very first commercial for something called the Big Mac to the first TV ad for a new donut shop called Tim Hortons,

we take a trip back in time to witness the origin of the species. You're under the influence. One of the most famous dolls of all time was born March 9, 1959. Her name was Barbie. But her tax returns, say Barbara Meliscent Roberts. She has seven siblings, and Barbie is a busy gal, as she's had over 250 careers. She has been a doctor, a dentist, a surgeon, a paratrooper, a math teacher, a farmer, and a rapper to name but a few. This was the very first commercial for Barbie.

It aired during the Mickey Mouse Club television show back in 1959. My Barbie doll is really real. Barbie's small and so petite. Her clothes and figure looks so neat. Her dancing outfit rings and bell. At parties she will cast a smell. Purses hats and gloves below. And all the gadgets gals are doll.

Barbie dressed for swim and fun is only $3. Her lovely fashions range from $1 to $5. Look for Barbie wherever dolls are sold. Barbie has always been very stylish. and celebrity designers like Versace, Stella McCartney and Christian Dior have all designed outfits for her wardrobe. The most popular Barbie was the 1992

Total Hair Barbie, with floor-length blonde hair. It has sold more than any other Barbie before or since. Barbie is one of the most successful toys in history. Mattel claims that 100 Barbie dolls are sold every minute somewhere in the world. Carmakers are some of the biggest television advertisers, and commercials often gave actors their first acting jobs. Volkswagen wanted to produce a commercial for its 1966 fastback model.

The commercial was to feature the car's interior space, roomier than the usual Volkswagen bug. But VW had to find an actor who wasn't too tall, so he could get into the Volkswagen fastback and move around. inside it easily. They did a casting and found the perfect 5-foot-6 actor who had personality. It was his first paid acting job. His name was Dustin Hoffman.

If you've never bought a Volkswagen because it wasn't big enough, okay. Here's a Volkswagen that's big enough. The new VW fast-back sedan that seats four with more room for elbows and legs. It's pretty jazzy. Two, has an electric clock and even wall-to-wall carpan. The fastback also has the most powerful engine we've ever made. It's air cool. It goes 27 miles on a gallon of gas,

which is pretty good for a car that can go 84 miles per hour. Since we made a VW that's a little roomier in the inside, we decided to do the same thing on the outside. It's got a trunk up front where most cars have their motors. And in the back, where most cars have their trucks, Those cars have their trunks. We have a trunk, a large trunk. Come into your Volkswagen dealer.

He'll show you where the motor is. Dustin was an out-of-work actor when he made that commercial. Just one year later, he would star in his breakout movie, The Graduate. Back in 1964, a certain hockey player would get his usual brush cut at his favorite barbershop called Benny's, in Scarborough, Ontario. Next door to that barbershop was a small donut store. The hockey player was fascinated by that donut store because it only sold coffee and donuts,

which was rare in Canada at that time. The hockey player met the owners of the donut shop and eventually became a partner in the store. They believed that the hockey player's fame would drive business, as that player had just won three Stanley Cups in a row, soon to before. The player's name was Tim Horton. While the donut store struggled financially

through various iterations in Toronto, Tim Horton purchased an old service station in Hamilton, Ontario, and converted it into a donut shop. It was a solid working-class town, and hungry steelworkers coming off shift made for a steady customer base. A Hamilton cop named Ron Joyce liked Tim Horton's donut shop. He talked to Tim about coming on board, bought out the other two partners,

and the rest is double-double history. Here is the very first television commercial for Tim Hortons, made around 1972, with a surprise appearance at the end of the commercial from Tim Horton himself, along with hockey players George Armstrong, Pat Quinn, and Hamilton Tiger Cat, Angela Mosca. At Tim Hortons, there are a lot of good reasons to stop for coffee and donuts, like chocolate dip donuts, orange twists, donuts with whipped cream, honey cruellers, famous Tim Horton duchies, and more.

Of course, Tim Horton's service is always friendly and efficient. We're open seven days a week, and the coffee is great. Yes, at Tim Hortons, there are a lot of good reasons to stop for coffee and donuts, but most of all, you meet the happiest people. Tim Horton had no lines in that commercial, just a big smile while he ate a donut. And that would be the only TV commercial Tim Horton ever appeared in, as he would die in a car accident less than two years later. He probably never dreamed his donut shop would scale the heights it eventually did.

There are now over 5,500 Tim Horton's restaurants around the world. When we come back, McDonald's rolls up. a commercial for its big new aristocrat burger. If you're enjoying this episode, you might also like, Guinness Book of World Ad Records, from our 2018 season. What commercial holds the record for airing the longest, and which advertising mascot is the oldest? You'll find the episode on your favorite podcast app. Just as Tim Horton's Hamilton store catered to the city's steelworkers, McDonald's first created the Big Mac to cater to steelworkers in Union Town, Pennsylvania.

In 1968, the owner of a McDonald's location there noticed that the steelworkers coming off shift were ravenously hungry, and the single-pattie cheeseburger wasn't filling them up. So we started to experiment with a new kind of hamburger, one with two patties instead of one. With that much meat, the burger needed some additional stability, so he ate. added a third bun in the middle. The result was two all-beef patty, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, and onions

on a sesame seed bun. This new hamburger was originally called the aristocrat, but that didn't really capture the essence of this burly burger. That's when a 21-year-old secretary at McDonald's named Esther Glickstein suggested they call it the Big Mac.

McDonald's executives laughed it off at first, but Esther got the last laugh when the name stuck. Here's the very first commercial for the new Big Mac. I'm going to show you how McDonald's builds a Big Mac sandwich. It starts here with a lightly toasted bun, and then a pure beef hamburger, sizzling hot, a slice of cheddar blend cheese, and some crisp, fresh lemon.

Then, our own secret sauce. The club slides, toasted. Another hamburger. And a little more sauce just for good flavor. Crisp dill pickles and the sesame seed crown. This is the sandwich. McDonald's new Big Mac sandwich for the bigger than average appetite. The Mac prefix would become a McDonald's menu staple,

the McChicken, Nuggets, McRib, etc. Today, McDonald's says it sells 620 million Big Macs each year in Canada and the U.S. alone. There is one advertising agency that is known, above all, for creating enduring mascots. That ad agency is Leo Burnett, based in Chicago with an office in Toronto. It has created Tony the Tiger, Charlie the Tuna, Snapcrackle and Pets. Pop, the Kebler elves, the Marlborough Man, Morris the Cat, and the Jolly Green Giant, as we mentioned in Part 1.

Burnett also created the Pillsbury Doe Boy. In 1965, an ad writer at Leo Burnett named Rudy Purrs was testing out a can of Pillsbury refrigerated dough. He cracked it on the side of his counter and the dough oozed out. In that moment, he imagined a doughy mascot that would pop out of the can. The first order of business was to make sure the new dough boy didn't look too much like Casper the friendly ghost.

So they gave him a chef's hat and a name, Poppin' Fresh. To bring him to life, Purs hired a film studio in Los Angeles to use stop-motion clay animation. There were no computers back then, So every second of film time required 24 shots. Fifty actors auditioned to be the voice of the Pillsbury Doe Boy, and Paul Freeze, who voiced Boris on the Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, got the job. Here's the very first commercial.

And who are you? I'm popping fresh, the Pillsbury Doe Boy. May I have this dance? A house smells so nice. When you bake in the oven, you bake something warm. And fresh in the oven, nothing says loving, like something from the oven, and Pillsbury says it best. Purs also gave Poppin Fresh a signature laugh that would show up in every commercial

when a gentle finger poked him in his doughy tummy. Just three years after his debut, the Pillsbury Dole Boy had an 87% recognition factor with the general public. And believe it or not, there was a time when Pillsbury got 1,500 requests for Dole Boy autographed photos. And that little round dude with the chef's hat was receiving 200 fan letters per week. Poppenfresh probably had an agent, too, as he has appeared in over 600 commercials. Back in 1977, 20th century.

Century Fox released a film nobody wanted. They saw it as a risky kiddie movie. But the studio was convinced it had a potential big hit on their hands with another movie called... The Other Side of Midnight. It is a time to dream, to fall in love,

to feel the heartbeat of every living moment, of every endless day. The studio was so sure of this picture's success that in order for theaters to get this steamy film, they had to agree to take on the two-bit kitty movie as well. Theater owners weren't happy about that. Here's the very first television commercial for that kitty movie. A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.

Here they come. 20th Century Fox and George Lucas, the man who brought you American graffiti, now bring An adventure unlike anything on your planet. Star Wars. I am C.3Piu, human cyborg relations, and this is my counterpart, Art O'Do. Hello. The story of a boy, a girl, and a universe.

The love it. It's an epic of heroes and villains and aliens from a thousand worlds. Here! A billion years in the making, Star Wars, rated B.G. The other side of midnight made $24 million at the box office, then disappeared. This first Star Wars movie made $265 million on its first run,

then generated $775 million with subsequent re-releases. The rest is Luke Lucas history. When we come back, the Blue Jays are something to sing about. Back in 1982, advertising agency J.WT. Direct was handling the Toronto Blue Jays account. A new season was starting, and the Jays organization wanted to drum up a little fan excitement. So the ad agency wrote some commercials

and hired jingle composers Tony Kozinick and Jack Lenz to write the first ever jingle for the Blue Jays. The ad agency gave them a line to work with. Okay, Blue Jays, let's play ball. So, Koznik and Lens got to work. They wanted to capture the feel of a baseball game on a summer's day. And it was also a bit of a tutorial on how the game was played, as the Jays were still kind of new to Toronto.

The song was written in a Randy Newman style, and Koznik and Lens hired singer and baseball fanatic Keith Hampshire to sing it. Tony's direction to Keith, be silly with it. When they were done, they presented the jingle to the Blue Jays organization and they loved it.

Then the Jays started using OK Blue Jays during the seventh inning stretch at games. The fans fell in love with it. That's when Tony Koznik said, this should be a song. So, he and Jack Lens wrote a full-length version,

got a record deal, and released it. Soon, radio station started playing it. The song went gold, selling 50,000 copies instantly. Koznik remembers getting his gold record presented to him on the pitcher's mound before a game in 1986. But over the ensuing years, it bugged Tony Kozinnik that, of all the wonderful music he has written, the Blue Jay song was his only gold record.

He hung it on a wall. near a bathroom. Then, not long ago, his daughter Bess wrote a sweet editorial about the song in the Toronto Star. She said how much she loved it, especially when she was little, and how everybody was singing it on front lawns and in the streets when the Jays won the World Series, and how the song has meant so much to Toronto and Blue Jays fans over the years. It gets played over 80 times a year at the Rogers Center, and fans know every word. Bess's article made Tony reassess his Blue Jays song. He told me he's come around now

and can appreciate it for what it is, which, he says, has nothing to do with him anymore. It's owned and treasured by the fans, and he's okay with that. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Toronto Blue Jays and the 40th anniversary of OK Blue Jays. The gold record now hangs in the new Blue Jays Museum at the Rogers Center.

It's always informative to see the first commercials of famous brands. Back then, we didn't know much about those companies or their products. Yet, when you see that first Tim Horton's commercial, the basic message hasn't changed that much since 1972. And I bet there is a generation or two that don't even know the restaurants are named after a hockey player. Interesting to know the Big Mac was created to satisfy hungry steel workers in Pennsylvania, the very same blue collar workers Tim Horton's wanted to attract in Hamilton, Ontario. And every brand we talked about today is still at the top of their game.

The Pillsbury Doe Boy is still giggling after 60 years. Barbie is having a moment. The Blue Jays almost went all the way again last season. And that George Lucas kid is doing okay. Little did we know when we saw those debut commercials that we'd still be talking about those brands all these years later. Each has pulled off their own version of a triple lutz when you're under the influence.

I'm Terry O'Reilly. This episode was recorded in the Terstream Mobile Recording Studio, producer Debbie O'Reilly, chief sound engineer Jeff Devine, Theme music by Casey Pick, Jeremiah Pick, and James Aiton. Tunes provided by APM music, follow me at Terry O Influence. This podcast is powered by ACAST. Terry's top slogans of all time. Number six.

The Saddleback Leather Company. They'll fight over it when you're dead. See you next week.