Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly - Happy World Radio Day. Revisiting "Air Quotes: Creative Radio"

Episode Date: February 13, 2026

In celebration of World Radio Day, we look back on some of the most creative radio advertising from around the world. It’s the toughest medium to write for – but it’s also the most creatively freeing. We’ll hear commercials for a hair removal product, a fast-food series created for these confusing times and a student audio idea that attracted Taylor Swift.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.

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You get first jump at our live podcast recording events, which all we sell out immediately. And here's another huge bonus. You get access to all of our other apostrophe shows, including we regret to inform you, and backstage at the Vinyl Cafe and the Beatleology interviews, all ad-free, all full of bonus fun. If you join in January, enjoy 20% off your first three months. Just head to the link in the description of this episode and follow the prompts. This is an apostrophe podcast production. 1974, Lucille Ball was being interviewed on the Dick Cavett show, and she told an interesting story.

In 1942, during World War II, Lucy had some dental work done. She was given some temporary fillings, top and bottom. And back then, dentists apparently used lead for stopgap fillings. She was driving home late one night around 1 a.m. after a long day filming a movie titled, Duberry was a lady, co-starring Red Skelton and Gene Kelly. At one point in that film, Red Skelton has an arrow stuck in his rear end, and as he pleads to have it removed, he says, Hurry up, this thing is starting to pick up radio stations already.

Which was ironic considering what was about to happen to Lucy. While she was filming that movie, Lucy and her husband Desi Arnaz owned a ranch in the San Fernando Valley, and Lucy had a 35-mile trip home every night from the studio in L.A. She had taken the same road for years, except on this particular night, after she had the dental work done, Something strange happened. As she was driving, she suddenly heard loud music. She reached to turn the radio down and realized the radio was, in fact, off. But the music kept getting louder and louder.

Then Lucy realized something. The music was coming from inside her mouth. And it was beating in my ears. I could hear the tune and everything. I recognized the tune. and then it started to fade out. Then, it was gone. She sat in the driver's seat wondering,

what in the world was that? The next day, she mentioned it to fellow actor Buster Keaton. He asked Lucy what road she had been on. Lucy said Moore Park. Keaton said, did you just get any new fillings? Lucy said, why, yes. Keaton said, well, you drove by a radio station on Moore Park and you picked up its signal through your fillings.

and it had happened to a friend of his not long before. Lucy was shocked. She drove home on that same road on four consecutive nights at different times, but didn't hear any more music. So she took a different route home on the fifth night. She was passing four vacant lots where a hospital was being built, when suddenly she heard something in her mouth. I'll let Lucy take it from here.

As I went by there, I heard, I'm picking it up with my teeth. You mean. Yes. And I stopped the car. Then I looked around. The Morse code like. And I backed the car up and it got stronger and stronger.

And I kept on backing it up until it really got strong. And my whole jaw was vibrating. Oh, you know, like this. And then I got the hell out of there. I went, boom. That Morse code sound. in her mouth made Lucy nervous because tensions were high in California in 1942. Pearl Harbor had been bombed a few months earlier.

A submarine had been spotted off the coast of Santa Barbara. So the next day, Lucy told the studio security about her experience. They told the police, and the police brought in the FBI. Sure enough, the Bureau discovered a secret radio transmitter hidden in a toolshed operated by a spy. It was a strange occurrence. But then again, a radio receiver is made up of an antenna, a detector to convert a radio wave to an audio signal,

and a speaker. And in some rare cases, a person's body can act as an antenna, the mouth can act as a receiver, and a filling can convert radio waves to an audio signal. Welcome to the awesome power of radio. Today, I'd like to talk about that awesome power of radio. While there is a lot of terrible radio advertising being transmitted, there is also some excellent work being done around the world.

And I like to tip my hat to those radio writers who truly understand the creative potential of radio. Because when radio is used creatively, it makes your ears happy. instead of making your teeth hurt. You're under the influence. Of the great things about creating radio commercials is that you are rarely hemmed in or hamstrung by budget concerns. Radio is one of the most affordable mediums.

It's just you, your computer screen, and your imagination. In my career, I directed close to 14,000 radio commercials. As a director, my most important job was casting. Choosing just the right voices and personalities behind those voices can make or break radio commercials. Once you got the casting right, the rest was pretty easy. As I've mentioned many times before, the majority of ad writers are afraid of radio. The biggest reason? You are very exposed as a writer. You can't rely on fancy camera shots, good-looking actors, or exotic locations.

It's just you and your idea. darkly front and center. As a result, ad writers are judged harshly when it comes to radio. But the best writers know, radio offers you the biggest creative canvas. Sometimes that big canvas can also be tiny. Like, five seconds tiny. Hey, what's new? Nothing. Antique dealer Jean Lacasse. Nothing new? Just old stuff.

I think that says it all about Jean Lacasse antiques, produced by Montreal-based ad agency. Sid Lee. Here's a campaign for a hair removal product called New Derm. It's a funny idea from Dory Ads in St. John's Newfoundland. Women are asking about laser hair removal. Does it hurt? Not really. It feels like a small elastic band snapping the skin. How many treatments will I need? Best to get started now before bikini season. It's Newfoundland. Bikini Day. European men prefer hairy women. Actually, the European men in St. John's disagree. Both of them?

Both of them. For affordable laser hair removal, don't beat around the bush. Visit Newderm Skin Care Clinic, medically trained skin care experts, newderm.ca. So simple. All based on the promise of New Derm, getting rid of unwanted body hair. Women are asking about laser hair removal. If I have the hair on my legs permanently removed, will I miss it? No, Cindy.

In our experience, women do not miss the hair that used to be on their legs. Will you be able to tell that I had my mustache laser? Yes. It will no longer be there. My armpits are so hairy. It looks like I have Howard Stern and a headlock. Can you help? Yes.

For affordable laser hair removal, don't beat around the bush. Visit Newderm Skin Care Clinic, medically trained skin care experts. Newderm.ca. Very funny writing. Here's a radio ad that just always made me laugh. The advertiser is Chevron. The actors were two of Canada's very best, the late Miles Ramsey and Fred Latrimo.

All right, just going over your resume. Okay. Road Scholar. Yes, that's right. Big deal. Your town pump. Here's a commercial from a recent campaign for Vauxhall cars in Spain. It's promoting the reverse camera option on Vauxals

and why it's an important safety feature. The radio idea? Tell a fairy tale in reverse. This is the story of a very, very rich boy called Jack. One day he brought a dead giant back to life. Then he gave the giant a goose that laid golden eggs. Oh, thanks. A goose that the giant had previously owned and which Jack had stolen.

The giant stomped about shouting, Bumble by V. Then Jack climbed down a giant bean stalk and swaps a magic beans for a cow. After which he lived in poverty with his mother until the day he was born. Things can end badly backwards. That's why the Vauxhall Astra Ultimate comes with reverse camera as standard.

Vauxhall, British brand since 1903. Another fun thing about radio commercials is that you can use music in creative ways. Music can be part of the humor. Here's a recent ad from a funny campaign for Ragu's spaghetti sauce. Spaghetti is a comfort food. So Ragu is positioning itself as a comfort food for kids, because growing up's tough. Maggie Brown. Here.

John Fox. Here. Moon, Topaz Henderson? Here. Her name's a bit too creative. And her parents are to blame. Now she's got to go through life with a stupid, happy name. She needs rap.

It's tough. Give a rap. A long day of childhood calls for America's favorite pasta sauce. The strength of an advertising idea is proven when it can be pulled out into multiple executions, all pivoting on the same core idea. How do those shoes feel, buddy? They're too big.

You just got to grow into them. You wear a size seven. He pulls a ten off the shelf. You're stumbling like a hobo, and you look like an elf. A long day of childhood calls for America's favorite pasta sauce. He's been through enough. Funny stuff.

Probably my favorite radio campaign out there right now is for Burger King, created by an advertising agency called David in Madrid, Spain. The title of the radio campaign is Confusing Times. The ads are promoting a new, beef-free, impossible whopper that still tastes like a whopper. How can that be? Confusing times. It's all so confusing. Nowadays. Terence knows that shaking hands is not okay, but bumping elbows is. Terence also knows that he should sneeze into his elbow. Now Terrence is, he's confused.

Haley is more excited to take her dog out the house than her dog is. This new dinners. They're both confused. Dustin bought a book on climate change, but it's shipped from England by plane wrapped in plastic. Now he's vegan shoes. It's all so confusing, which makes it the perfect time for the Burger King Impossible Wobber. A Wobber, made without beef. that tastes just like what? The casting is particularly interesting.

Not your usual fast food commercial voice. Not your usual blistering high torque cell. And the commercials are not your usual 30 seconds in length. They are a minute 30, giving the ad lots of time to stroll. The idea of leveraging a confusing time to launch a confusing burger is funny. It's confusing out there. Trudy wants to go to the office tomorrow. She needs that work, life separation.

But she also needs to work in pajamas. Work says nothing. She's confused. Emma has discovered that she likes dating Mark's profile, more than she likes dating Mark. Now, she's confused. James wants to call his old man, old man, but calling someone old is wrong, right?

It's okay to be old, just not to be called. Is it adjectives through the problem? He's confused. And Esteban, he took, an online violin masterclass, but he's not a master now. He's confused. These are confusing times, which is just about the right time to have the Burger King Impossible Wobber, a Wobber made without beef that tastes just like a wopper.

Me neither. And we'll be right back. You're listening to Season 10 of Under the Influence. If you're enjoying this episode, you might also like air quality, innovations in radio, Season 8, Episode 11. You'll find it in our archives wherever you download your pods. While radio ads can be very funny and humor is one of the best ways to break through in advertising, another strength of radio is the use of sound effects.

Greenpeace did this in a very intriguing way in a recent radio campaign. The organization claims that every year, 300 million tons of plastic, end up in the ocean. If this continues, Greenpeace says that by 2050 there will be more plastic in the sea than fish. So, they created this commercial. The sounds you just heard were not made by the ocean, but by plastic waste. Because it's getting harder and harder to tell them apart, help us clean the ocean at greenpeace.org. Amazingly, every one of those sounds was made using plastic waste found in the ocean. bottles, plastic balloons, and other plastic trash.

Other commercials in the campaign imitated the sound of waves pounding on the shore by squeezing bags of plastic waste, and the sound of whales by rubbing plastic and styrofoam together. All sound effects created with plastic waste. Greenpeace wanted to try and make people care about the ocean by being surprising on radio. The campaign attracted the equivalent of one-hundred-one,

$100,000 worth of free press, and donations to the cause went up by 190%. The most powerful element of radio is the emotion inherent in the human voice, as Belgium demonstrated recently. In that country, 640 people lost their lives in road accidents in 2017. That was a decrease of 13% compared to the year before. That was good news when a comes to statistics, but for the parents, family, and friends of those 640 people, it was gut-wrenching tragedy. A group called Parents of Road victims wanted to send a message saying that 640 people dying on the road was still too many in a country as small as Belgium, population 11 million.

They wanted to reach people in cars, so they did something highly unusual. They created a year-long radio campaign, you would rather not hear. They called it behind the numbers. Here's what they did. The dynamic radio campaign was linked directly to real-time police data. So when a road death was reported by the police, a new radio commercial was instantly aired in real-time simultaneously on five different radio channels.

It would air minutes after the accident with an up-time. updated number. Therefore, each commercial was unique. Each commercial read by a parent who had lost a child to a car accident. If you this, is there someone overlede in the traffic. Translation. When you hear this, someone just died in a traffic accident. Number 66 since January. Number 66 in the statistics. Number 66 in the statistics.

Number 66 in the statistics. But for all, a man's, and always a real person. Please, ride forcihth and always somebody's child. Please drive carefully. 66, are 66 too many. 66 are 66 too many. A message from parents of road victims,

like me. The campaign turned every lost life into a reason to drive more safely. As fate would have it, the writer of this campaign lost a friend to a road accident a few months after the campaign began. It was only the following day he realized that when he heard his own radio commercial announcing victim number 121, that 121 was actually announcing his friend's passing. Statistics are easily ignored. But if you can help people realize there are real people behind the numbers, the message has a real chance to sink in.

604 people died in road accidents in Belgium in 2018, 36 fewer than before the campaign began. An amazing audio idea was created in Toronto recently. The Ontario government cut grants to school music programs, by more than half in the last few years. The Regent Park School of Music is an inner-city school that relies on funding to survive. Most music lessons cost upwards of $80 an hour. The Regent Park School of Music wanted to remove that barrier for kids who come from low-income families

and teach music for one or $2 an hour instead. But when the school could no longer rely on government funding, it had to figure out a way to support itself. itself. Here's what they did. Together with advertising agency BBDO Toronto, they created a library of original music tracks performed by the kids at the Regent Park School of Music. The school approached Frank Dukes, a Grammy award-winning Toronto producer who had worked with artists like The Weekend, Drake, and Rihanna.

Dukes loved the idea and agreed to compose music for the album, and the region park students played on the tracks. But it was their marketing strategy that was so smart. They didn't target the public with the music. Instead, they targeted musicians. Every time an artist sampled music from the library, the school would receive royalties and residuals for the life of the song.

Then the amazing happened. Taylor Swift sampled a track for her song It's nice to have a friend on her album, Lover. It was streamed 226 million times in its first week of release. Lover would become the number one selling album of the year. The song was also licensed for the DreamWorks film Abominable. Every new stream, license, and download equals a new royalty for the school, meaning the kids who benefit from the program are playing a direct role in sustaining it.

The music library, called Parkscapes, hopes to raise millions of dollars for the Regent Park School of Music. It also has one other very meaningful benefit. When the kids hear themselves on a Taylor Swift album, it empowers them. And they take that feeling out to the community. The message? Anything is possible. That's the aspect of radio I've always loved. anything is possible. With some good writing, a surprising idea in a bag of sound effects,

you can take a listener on a colorful journey. It can be a funny moment as New Durham and Burger King did so well. It can be musical and funny as Ragu proved. Or it can be musical and genius as the Region Park School of Music showed us, marketing not to the public, but instead to big-time musicians, allowing the school to support itself with the royalties their own music generates. A recent article on neuroscience in the Globe and Mail stated that our language comprehension evolved in connection with our hearing around 150,000 years ago.

Writing is only 5,000 to 7,000 years old, partially piggybacking on the same circuits. The power of audio may just be rooted in that evolution, that listening to speak, and cadence and rhythm and intonation is more evocative, natural, and ultimately emotional to us. It may also explain the incredible boom in podcasting. It's no accident that the words silent and listen are spelled with the same letters. Because there's a lot to be gained by occasionally being silent

and just listening 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, sound engineer Keith O'Mon, theme music by Ari Pozner and Ian Lefeber. Follow me on Twitter and Instagram at Terry O. Influence. See you next week. Use caution when removing body hair. Contents may be under pressure.

Avoid alcohol when attempting this procedure. Offer only valid in Badger, Newfoundland.