Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly - Gold, Silver & Spinach: TV Shows As Marketing

Episode Date: February 11, 2023

With multiple ways to skip commercials at our fingertips, advertisers have found a new way to reach the public. They’re jumping out of commercial breaks and into the storylines of television shows. This week, we look at a list of popular TV shows that aren’t just entertainment. They’re big marketing vehicles for companies.  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. Your teeth look whiter than no nose. You're not you when you're hungry. You're a good half with all teeth. You're under the influence with Terry O'Reilly. Back in 1919, illustrator E.C. Segar was asked to create a cartoon for the New York Journal. He titled it Thimble Theater.

The lead characters were Olive Oil, her brother Castor Oil, and Olive's boyfriend Harold Hamgravy. The cartoon strip became very popular. Ten years later, Segar needed a sailor for one storyline, so he created a new character called Popeye. Popeye was supposed to be a temporary one-off, but so many readers wrote in requesting Popeye's return, Segar made him a regular, and eventually, Popeye became the lead character in the strip. Thimble Theatre, starring Popeye, ran in over 500 newspapers across the country.

Popeye the character had a strange quirk. He loved spinach. Occasionally, when Popeye needed to save someone or fight off a big villain, Popeye would quickly open a can of spinach, gobble it down, and be instantly instilled with superhuman powers. In 1933, Popeye was adapted into a series of animated cartoons to be shown in theaters. I'm Popeye the Sailor Man. I'm Popeye the Sailor Man I'm Popeye the Sailor Man I'm strong to the finish

Cause I eat me spinach I'm Popeye the Sailor Man While Segar had used spinach in his comics sparingly The animation studio recognized the iconic aspect of Popeye's spinach jolt And featured it in every single cartoon. Whenever Popeye was facing a seemingly hopeless situation, usually having to save olive oil from harm, Popeye, help! Help, Popeye! Popeye, help me!

he would pop open a can of spinach Oh, my hero! and save the day. In 1960, Popeye made the jump to television. A new series of cartoons was commissioned. Al Brodax, who would eventually oversee the Beatles cartoons and animated film Yellow Submarine, was put in charge. The cartoons were wildly popular,

and Popeye reached an even bigger audience than ever. Spinach became such an iconic aspect of Popeye cartoons on the mass medium of television that something unexpected happened. Consumption of spinach jumped 30%. Kids who hated their vegetables could be convinced to eat spinach because Popeye did.

Popeye sold so much spinach, there is a statue of the Sailor Man in Crystal City, Texas, the world capital of spinach. And canned Popeye spinach is still sold in supermarkets. So, why did E.C. Segar choose spinach to be Popeye's super fuel in the first place?

Well, that's the most interesting part of this story. Back in 1870, German chemist Erich von Wolf was researching the amount of iron present in green vegetables. When writing up his findings he made a mistake. He misplaced a decimal point. Instead of writing that spinach contained 3.5 milligrams of iron

per 100 gram serving he said spinach had 35 milligrams of iron 10 times the actual amount. And that's why E.C. Segar chose spinach to be Popeye's secret weapon. Even though von Wolf's mistake was eventually corrected 70 years later, the myth of spinach still remains to this day. All thanks to a misplaced decimal point and the power of television to sell

not during the commercial breaks, but within the main storyline itself. There's a lot of selling going on in the main storylines on television today, too. With multiple ways to skip commercials, advertisers needed to find new ways to connect with the public. And one of the ways brands are doing that is by jumping out of the commercial breaks and into the main storylines of television shows.

Which means a lot of the TV shows you enjoy today are more than just entertainment. They're actually big, super-fueled marketing vehicles. You're under the influence. For those of a certain vintage, cast your mind back. Back to a time when you tuned into this beloved TV show. The Wonderful World of Disney.

Back in the late 1940s, Walt Disney had a vision for something bigger than a motion picture. His company already had great success pioneering full-length animation movies. But Walt was becoming bored. He wanted to make history again. That's when he wondered if he could create an amusement park unlike any other that had ever been built before. Walt Disney's vision for an imaginative park was so revolutionary, his staff couldn't even get their heads around it. That's because he didn't think of it as an amusement park. He thought of it as a motion picture set. He would even describe the park's layout to people by saying,

here's scene one, this is scene two, and this is scene three. Walt even planned a high embankment to surround the entire park to blot out the surroundings so visitors would be fully immersed in the experience. At first, Walt dubbed his idea Mickey Mouse Village, but soon it took on another name, Disneyland. Walt's brother, Roy Disney, managed the movie studio and took care of all the money issues. His job was to keep the studio healthy, enable Walt's dreams, and throw on the emergency brake when required.

When Walt purchased 160 acres of land for his Disneyland project, Roy's brake lights came on. This park was going to be incredibly expensive. More expensive than any project a Disney company had ever undertaken. The studio alone couldn't fund it. But Walt had an idea. Television would pay for it. Walt had been fascinated by television since the mid-1930s when he witnessed an RCA demonstration of the new medium. All the other movie moguls perceived television as a threat, but Walt Disney

broke ranks and saw it as the next big thing. Walt envisioned a television program that would promote upcoming Disney movies, play content from the Disney library, and, most of all, showcase Disneyland every week. Walt also envisioned big brands sponsoring the show,

picking up the tab for production, while giving the Disney company rolling profits that could build his park. When Walt pitched the Disney television program to networks, they all turned him down, except ABC. That network was new, and it needed a hit show. ABC chairman Leonard Goldenson was desperate to land Disney. Sensing that, Walt added a stipulation to the deal. He also wanted the network to invest in his park. Sensing that, Walt added a stipulation to the deal.

He also wanted the network to invest in his park. After a back-and-forth negotiation, a deal was struck. ABC would get its Disney program, and Walt got the investment to start building Disneyland. The cost to build the park would eventually triple. The Disney TV show premiered on October 27, 1954, and soon turned into a fountain of cash. Each program featured host Walt Disney talking about Disneyland,

followed by new and older content from the vast Disney library. The program, which would eventually be called The Wonderful World of Disney, was an immediate hit. It would account for nearly half of ABC's advertising revenues. But here's the thing. While The Wonderful World of Disney was making television history, its true goal was quietly humming in the background. It was really a big commercial for Disneyland,

and the profits funded the construction of what would become Walt Disney's crowning achievement. I'm going to ask you to cast your mind back again, back to the 70s this time, to another television show. Love Boat Soon we'll be making another run Love Boat was a huge hit back in 1977 and would run until 1988. The show was based on a cruise ship called the Island Princess.

The crew was the show's regulars, and a revolving door of celebrities guested each week in funny and romantic storylines. The TV show was based on a 1974 book titled The Love Boats by Geraldine Saunders, the first female cruise director for Princess Cruises. Being in charge of shipboard activities gave her a close-up view of the passengers. She realized something happened to people when they boarded the ship. They left their protective walls down. She would often write home to her family saying,

you won't believe what happened today. Her mother saved those letters, sent them to a book agent, and the next thing Saunders knew, she was the author of a tell-all book that revealed her encounters with colorful passengers, fellow crew members, and exotic locales. A Hollywood executive optioned the book and made three made-for-TV movies, which then attracted the attention of producer Aaron Spelling, who turned the idea into one of the highest-rated primetime TV shows in the country.

But like the wonderful world of Disney, the Love Boat was more than entertainment. It was a big weekly commercial for Princess Cruise Lines. The TV show is widely credited with introducing audiences to the concept of cruise vacations. The TV captain of The Love Boat was actor Gavin McLeod. For an astonishing 35 years after the Love Boat's final episode, McLeod was the spokesperson for Princess Cruise Lines, making him one of the longest-serving celebrity spokespersons in TV history. Somewhere special memories are waiting for you.

Somewhere! Somewhere. Only on Princess. Because it's more than a cruise. It's the Love Boat. The impact of the Love Boat TV show on the cruise industry cannot be overstated. During the 10-year run, especially in the 80s, over 50 million people tuned in. In 1970, an estimated 500,000 people went on cruise vacations.

By the 90s, it was over 5 million. Over the years, Princess Cruise Lines organized several cast reunions on their ships, where passengers wait for hours to get their picture taken with the TV actors. Thanks in large part to the love boat, the cruise business is now a $7 billion industry and is expected to double by 2028. While the power of television launched the cruise ship industry, it also convinced people to stand in line outside a pawn shop.

Back around 2005, a pawn shop owner in Las Vegas wondered if his business might make an interesting reality TV show. It had a continuous flow of colorful characters looking to sell and pawn interesting items for fast cash. And the pawn shop owner, Rick Harrison, was a history buff who had a vast knowledge of how, when, and where those items were made and what they were valued at. Plus, there was the tension of negotiation. Harrison and his staff negotiated the price on every purchase the store made, and customers had to make a decision on the spot. So Harrison knocked on television doors for five years,

but was rejected by every single network. The idea of a pawn shop, to most people, was a seedy joint populated by small-time hoods and desperate junkies, an image reinforced by every cop show that aired in the 70s and 80s. But Harrison pitched a very different kind of pawn shop. He said pawning was the oldest form of banking, with its roots in ancient Rome. He said nearly 14 million Americans don't have bank accounts, so pawn shops offer a vital service by giving credit to people who don't have credit histories. And if they forfeit on the loan, the pawn shop keeps the collateral, and nobody gets sued. Harrison's company, called the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop, was clean and well-run.

It was a family business, first started by his father in 1989, now managed by Harrison and co-managed by his son. Then, one day, Harrison got a knock on the door. Some executives from a TV production company were in Vegas for a bachelor party and stumbled upon Harrison's pawn store. They wondered if they could create a show about the pawn store for the History Channel,

utilizing Harrison's knowledge of the history of everyday products and esoteric items. Harrison said, that's exactly what I've been trying to pitch for five years. The History Channel liked the idea. It was decided cameras would simply watch the transactions unfold. Harrison and his staff would look the items over, give an interesting history lesson on the item, assign a value, then haggle over the price. Plus, there was the added bonus of the dynamic between Rick, his grumpy father, Rick's sarcastic son Corey,

and a kooky employee named Chum Lee. The last order of business was what to call the show. The gold and silver pawn shop just wasn't catchy enough. A week before the new show debuted, it was to be called Pawning History, but nobody was thrilled with the name. Then, just before it went to air, someone at the production company suggested another title,

Pawn Stars, a play on porn stars. Everyone knew that title wouldn't be approved by management, so they took a risk and sent the show out with the new title without corporate approval, employing the age-old strategy of better to beg forgiveness than ask for permission. Before management could balk, the title caught a lot of media attention. Then it caught viewers. In its first season, Pawn Stars attracted nearly 2.2 million viewers per episode. Year 2 jumped 80% to

average over 4 million, making it the History Channel's highest ranking series ever. Some weeks, it even tipped 5 million, pushing the show into the top 10. Pawn Stars was such a hit, it transformed the entire History Channel,

allowing the network to attract more content, which meant the audiences kept growing and growing, which meant History could charge more for its ads. The History Channel itself vaulted from top 20 to top 5. Two interesting side notes. First, Pawn Stars fueled two successful TV spinoffs, American Restoration and another titled Counting Cars. The stars of each of those shows made appearances on Pawn Stars

when the shop needed to call in experts, American Restoration when it needed to know what it would cost to restore an item to make it more valuable, and Counting Cars when the pawn shop was considering buying a car. Second, all three businesses were based in Vegas. That fueled tourism to the city. In a USA Today poll in 2013, the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop was voted the best tourist site in Vegas.

It beat out the Welcome to Las Vegas sign and the Bellagio Fountains. Just Google tours of Las Vegas TV show locations to see how much tourism activity there is. And Rick Harrison's pawn shop is thriving like it never has before. The show airs in 38 languages in 150 countries. The shop was so popular, it had to dedicate a large section of its floor space to Pawn Stars merchandise, which fans gobble up.

As Harrison originally said, he figured a show would mean free publicity, and free publicity would mean more business. Proving that Pawn Stars is not just entertainment, it's a big weekly commercial for the gold and silver pawn shop. Back in early 2017, Liberty Media purchased the Formula One group for $4.6 billion. Liberty Media is a corporation with vast holdings, including Sirius XM and the Atlanta Braves baseball team. The Formula One group held the exclusive commercial rights to the Formula One World Championship,

a nine-month-long competition where racing teams compete for the driver's championship. It is considered the most prestigious motor racing competition in the world, with events held in 21 countries across five continents each year. But when Liberty Media bought Formula One, the sport was in decline. Fan engagement was waning. Formula One not only needed a big marketing idea to re-engage its fan base, it desperately needed to attract new fans to survive.

Formula One had a lot of exciting elements that could be leveraged in a marketing campaign. There was the relentless technical innovation of the cars, the elite abilities and personalities of the drivers, the split-second magic of the pit crews, and the inherent danger on the track. Whenever you're planning a marketing thrust, you have to identify and isolate the main selling feature. At first glance, all fingers pointed to F1's record-breaking speed. But a deeper frisk of the research revealed something else entirely.

It wasn't speed that attracted fans. It was competition. As automotive website Jalopnik points out, the concept of competition is inherently different than speed. Speed is cold and clinical and can be achieved solo. But competition pits drivers and teams against one another. That rivalry brings out the aggression,

the passion, and the all-out desire to win. To even be a Formula One driver, you have to be one of the 20 best drivers in the world. So, Formula One launched an advertising campaign titled Engineered Insanity, showing F1 cars racing flat out, car crashes and near crashes, and even drivers fist-fighting on the sidelines.

The goal was to drum up the excitement of F1 racing and to alert various cities when a race was scheduled by employing a social media and email push. But the problem was that you had to already be an F1 fan to even see the social media or receive the emails. To ensure Formula One had a future, the sport needed to attract new fans. The managing director of F1's commercial operations wondered if a television series could be developed that showed the backstage drama of Formula One racing.

But above all, the series had to show F1 in a completely different light and introduce it to a completely different fan. So in 2017, a TV production crew started following the Formula One teams, the owners, and the drivers. It wasn't easy gaining access. F1 teams are notoriously secretive about their operations. The top two teams, Ferrari and Mercedes, refused to even participate. But the producers arranged a meeting with Gunther Steiner, who managed the Haas F1 team. Within two minutes, the production company knew they had a show on their hands. Steiner was funny, shockingly honest, and ruthlessly competitive.

In other words, he was a character. So were the drivers, who respected some rivals and hated others. The producers then sold the idea to Netflix. The streaming company offered F1 two important things. First, it guaranteed international distribution. And most importantly, it would populate the show

into the algorithms of people who don't watch F1, but were interested in sports, reality TV, and documentaries. The production team then filmed the first season in 2018. They titled it Drive to Survive.

These guys have an almost fighter pilot mentality and that's what separates them from mere mortals. The trailer for season one showed the pressure, the elite skill and the knife edge drama of F1 up close.

Then the pandemic hit. COVID F1 up close. Then the pandemic hit. COVID put the F1 circuit on hold. But a curious thing happened. The world was also on hold in lockdown. People suddenly had a lot of time on their hands, and they started to watch Drive to Survive. We're in this sport to win, and nobody's giving up.

Teams, racing, not just for glory, but for hundreds of millions of dollars. The success of Season 1 convinced Ferrari and Mercedes to jump on board in Season 2. And almost immediately, Formula 1 saw a 209% increase in revenues. The storylines season to season were thrilling. Seeing the races from inside the cockpits, witnessing the fierce competitive spirit of the elite drivers and their split-second decisions as they pushed their machines to over 360 kilometers per hour was enthralling. Fans suddenly were spending more time engaging with F1,

devouring F1 content and buying F1 merchandise. Formula One not only met its lofty goals, but surpassed them, then proceeded to double them. Drive to Survive achieved Netflix's top 10 status in 56 countries. It ranked number one worldwide after season three, which means it actually gained more viewers than its first season, which is unheard of. The growth was explosive, especially in North America,

where F1 was widely considered a European sport. Event viewership here was up 58% last year. Sponsors fought for the chance to be involved. Formula One ticket purchases used to be 75% male. After Drive to Survive, it's now 60-40 with female attendance at an all-time high. Like the wonderful world of Disney, Pawn Stars, and the Love Boat, Drive to Survive isn't just entertainment, it's super-fueled marketing. I was in Las Vegas pre-pandemic and decided to take a stroll to the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop. There was a long velvet rope outside the doors.

It was there to keep order as people line up all the way down the street to get in. To a pawn store. The wonderful world of Disney turned into a wonderful world of profits, as Disney Parks generated a whopping $28 billion in 2022. The Love Boat TV show has been called the greatest product placement ever. And I dare you to watch Drive to Survive and not binge the entire series. As one journalist put it, these TV shows are a trap door directly into fandom. With more and more people skipping commercials, and with young viewers turning to ad-free streaming services, brands are jumping out of the commercial breaks and into the

storylines, where they're creating super-fueled entertainment that viewers eagerly consume like Popeye and spinach. When you're under the influence. I'm Terry O'Reilly. This episode was recorded in the Terrestrial Mobile Recording Studio.

Producer, Debbie O'Reilly. Sound Engineer, Jeff Devine. Under the Influence theme by Ari Posner and Ian Lefevre. Music in this episode provided by APM Music. Follow me on social at Terry O'Influence. This is Season 12 of Under the Influence. If you enjoyed this episode, you might also like You'll find it in our podcast archives. Find out more about the Apostrophe Podcast Network at apostrophepodcasts.ca.

Subscribe to the new Apostrophe YouTube channel, and you can now listen to our podcasts ad-free on Amazon Music. See you next week. Fun fact. The success of the Love Boat TV show led to a boom in ship construction. More than 100 giant cruise ships were built in the 90s alone. That's a big shipment of love.