Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly - It's a Floor Wax and a Dessert Topping: Unintended Product Uses

Episode Date: March 21, 2026

There are many products in the world that have “unintended uses.”Originally designed for one purpose, the general public has discovered alternate uses for these items.From Windex to baking soda to Ozempic, the makers of these products had no idea they would be used for so many unimagined tasks.And in one story today, the alternate use of diapers may surprise you.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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We're under the influence with Terry O'Reilly. The popularity of baseball grew rapidly in the second half of the 19th century. The game attracted players from all walks of life, including deaf players. The inability to hear what often put talented players at a disadvantage. Baseball was played at schools for the deaf, and it was there that players and coaches started to develop a system of hand signals to communicate with each other. Take me out with the crowd.

One of the first deaf players to reach the major leagues was Ed Dundon. He had learned hand signals while playing baseball at a school for the heart of hearing and brought that knowledge to his professional career. Dundon then taught umpires a few hand signals to help him follow the proceedings. One of the most famous deaf baseball players of all was William Hoy. Probably the most accomplished deaf player in major league history Hoy was a terrific center fielder for the Cincinnati Reds in the late 1800s. In the beginning of his career in the pros when batting,

Hoy would turn around to look at the umpire after each pitch to see if it was a ball or a strike. Pitchers caught on quickly and would rush Hoy, pitching to him the second he turned back to face the mound. As a result, his batting average suffered. Hoy then taught umpires, his coaches and managers, to use hand signals when he was at bat. The third base coach, for example, would signal Hoy after every pitch,

so Hoy no longer had to turn to the umpire. A year later, his batting average jumped up to 367. Hoy taught sign language to his teammates, who then started signing among themselves on the field. Other deaf players like Luther Taylor pitched for the New York Giants from 1900 to 1908. Lake Hoy, he also taught his teammates how to use sign language. When Taylor retired, he coached a baseball team at a school for the deaf.

One of his players, Dick Sippick, would go on to play as an outfielder for the Cincinnati Reds in 1945. Like Hoy and Taylor, Sipik would follow hand signals from his manager or third base coach. Upset of being called out on a close play one day, Sipik used a sign for a profanity, which the umpire couldn't interpret, while the Reds bench broke up in laughter. Today, hand signals in-game have become an integral part of baseball. And while Pitchcom has reduced hand signals between catcher and pitcher these days, a flurry of hand signals still emanates from the bench to the players on the field. It's hard to imagine the game without them.

Back in 1888, no one knew that hand signals originally divinely. developed to aid deaf players would one day be adopted by all Major League Baseball teams as a stealth way to communicate. It was an unintended use that changed the game. There are a lot of products in the world of marketing that have unintended uses. Originally designed for one purpose, the general public has discovered alternate uses for these items. From Windex to bubble wrap to baking soda to Ozempic, the makers of these products had no idea they would be used for so many unimagined tasks. And in one story today, the alternate use of diapers may shock and surprise you.

You're under the influence. As any cottager will tell you, spring brings blackflies, and when the sun starts to set, the mosquitoes come out. There are a lot of bug sprays out there, but one of our neighbors never bought traditional bug repellent. He swore. He swore. He swore. He by Avon's Skin So Soft Body lotion. Now, Avon's Skin So Soft is a moisturizing product first developed in 1961. Avon says Skin So Soft is its number one body care line. But many people buy it, not for soft skin, but to keep bugs away. Avon's Skin So Soft lotion makes no claim to be a bug repellent, but lots of people swear by it.

It's even rumored that the British Special Air Force. services, the Special Forces Unit of the British Army, buys it in bulk. Yes, these highly trained counterterrorism hostage rescue teams want silky soft skin, but they also don't want to be bothered by bugs as they crawl through the underbrush on missions. Knowing so many people use this product as bug spray, Avon eventually came out with an Avon Skin-So-So-So-Bug guard in the early 90s. But there are still people who prefer the original body lotion. The unintended benefit of bug repelling Avon skin so soft is probably added revenue for Avon. The first newspaper published in Canada is said to be the Halifax Gazette, launched in 1752.

First newspaper in the U.S. was around 169. All of which is to say, newspapers have a long history of delivering daily news, even if they seem to be disappearing today. When I was a kid, my very first job was delivering newspapers. Now, newspapers have several unintended uses. First, they provide an excellent way to start a fire in your fireplace, but there is another use. Newspapers are excellent as a glass cleaner. It may seem odd that newspapers leave ink on your hands. hands, yet leave no streaks on glass. But it's true. I use newspapers to clean glass whenever

I'm washing my vehicle. Modern newspapers are printed with soy-based ink, as it produces brighter images and is more eco-friendly than older petroleum-based inks. That means newspapers are less likely to smudge and leave residues on glass. The paper itself is coarse enough to act as a mild abrasive, helping to scrub away grime without scratching the glass. Plus, the paper is absorbent, so it helps to wick away the cleaning solution and dirt reducing streaks. And there's one more advantage to using newsprint. There's no lint, unlike some paper towels or cloths.

While this use of newspapers to clean glass probably doesn't lead to incremental revenue for newspaper companies, it is still a widely accepted unintentional. Use. Baking soda may be the one product with the most unintended uses. It has a long history, going back to ancient Egyptians and Greeks. The first packaged baking soda was produced by two brothers-in-law named John Dwight and Austin Church, who launched a business in 1847 that was eventually called Church and Dwight. They named their baking soda, cowbrose. There's a special cow punching into your refrigerator, making sure leftovers aren't taking over, working hard to keep everything smelling fresh.

But after three months, it's time for this cow to punch out. Replace your cow brand baking soda every three months. Originally created as a baking ingredient, it has leavening properties that cause dough to rise, giving bread, cakes, muffins, and cookies a light, fluffy texture. But that's not all. As you just heard in the cow brand commercial, baking soda can eliminate odors from your fridge. You can also use baking soda as a teeth whitener.

It is mildly abrasive so it can break down molecules that stain your teeth and apparently has antibacterial and antimicrobial properties. That same baking soda that you bake with can be used as a deodorant. Mix it with a little lemon juice or vinegar and it can clean your sauce. stove, stained coffee cups, grease stains, tarnished silverware, and even toilets and bathroom tiles. You can use baking soda to extinguish small oil and grease fires. Because baking soda contains sodium, it can kill weeds that grow in the cracks of sidewalks and driveways. If Avon's skin so soft doesn't stop the bugs, making a paste with baking soda can give temporary relief to bites and sunburns.

Got foot odor? sprinkle some baking soda in those shoes, the unintended uses go on and on. We've talked about Listerine before. Joseph Lister originally created it as a surgical antiseptic in 1865 to clean wounds and sterilized instruments. Then somehow, it was used as a remedy for gonorrhea, a cure for dandruff, a mouthwash, and a floor cleaner.

That's a lot of weird unintended uses. As Saturday Night Live once joked, New shimmers of floor wax and a dessert topic. Ozempic, the very popular weight loss drug, has an equally odd history that involves a lizard. In 1984, Dr. Daniel Drucker was a Canadian endocrinologist working at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. He and his team discovered a hormone in the human gut called

glucogon-like peptide 1, or GLP-1, and its function is to regulate blood sugar levels. They wanted to turn GLP-1 into a drug to help people manage type 2 diabetes. But there was a problem with GLP-1. It made people sick when injected with it, and it quickly disappears from the human body, which made it difficult to develop into a stable drug. This is where in the same. A lizard comes into the story.

The Gila monster, native to the southern U.S., has a remarkable ability to survive long periods of time without food by slowing down its metabolism and suppressing its appetite, without harming its health. Hormones in the reptiles' venom had previously been shown to regulate blood sugar. Meanwhile, a New York-based scientist named John Eng discovered that the hormone exenotide isolated from, the venom, mimic the actions of GLP1, and Drucker thought that was interesting. So he ordered a Gila monster, not sure how you do that, but he did it, and extracted the venom. Unlike GLP1, exenotide didn't break down and remained active in the body for long periods of time. The Gila monster hormone was then harnessed and synthesized into the first approved pharmaceutical drug for the treatment of type of

2 diabetes. It was a worldwide first. Two decades later, a drug called samaglutide that mimicked Drucker's GLP1 proved effective for weight loss. Soon, a new generation of GLP-based drugs were developed that lasted even longer, like OZampic. These drugs lowered blood sugar and suppressed appetites, so people didn't eat as much and started losing weight. What started as a diabetes drug turned ozempic and drugs like Wagovi into a weight loss phenomenon, which, lizard aside, was a definite unintended use. When we come back, the problem with eating ham after a funeral. If you're enjoying this episode, you might also like,

Disgustingly Effective, the marketing of bodily functions, Season 8, Episode 14, where we tell the story of a pharma company that spent $22 million to launch a mascot called Mr. Mucous. You'll find the episode on your favorite podcast app. Botox is another product with a weird history. It all begins with ham and a funeral. Back in 1897, a group of Belgian musicians who had just played at a funeral all fell sick after eating smoked ham at a pub. The ham was sent for analysis

and a bacterium was discovered. This bacterium botulinum was found to have the ability to weaken or paralyze specific muscles or nerves. Many years later, in the 1970s, doctors injected the toxin into patients to treat eye muscles after surgery for retinal detachment.

It was successful. That paved the way to use the botulinum to treat other eye conditions, such as crossed eyes. Doctors and other fields started using the drug to treat clenched jaws and migraines. Soon, patients started to experience an unexpected benefit. The fine lines around their eyes relaxed and smoothed out. The drug was then sold to a pharmaceutical company where it was rebranded as Botox. Doctors became skilled at using Botox for cosmetic reasons, and in 2002, the drug was officially approved for treating frown lines, crow's feet, and forehead lines. And the rest is an unintended wrinkle in history.

In the 1960s, a pharma company called Upjohn produced a drug called Monoxidil. It was developed to treat high. hypertension. In clinical trials, patients noticed an unintended occurrence. They started to get hairy. Upjohn didn't want to be associated with any miracle baldness cure, so it dismissed this hairiness as a harmless side effect. Soon, it became an open secret that monoxidil stimulated hair growth, so Upjohn decided to pursue the drug as a possible hair restorer before a rival did. For centuries, bald men have been willing to try anything to get their hair to grow back, and you can trust me on that one, including standing on their heads for long periods

to stimulate blood flow to the scalp, which of course is ridiculous, and it really hurts. When words spread that Upjohn needed volunteers for hair regrowth trials, they were absolutely overwhelmed with applicants. As it turned out, 80% saw new hair growth or saw further hair loss stop. Some even rubbed it on their chests to stimulate chest hair. The drug originally developed for hypertension is now marketed as rogain, as in regain your hair. McDonald's had to discontinue one of its utensils years ago because of an unintended use. For years, McDee's provided customers with a long, plastic stirring spoon,

so customers could add sugar and stir their coffees. You can probably picture it in your head. Five inches long, plastic with the word McDonald's on the thin stem, with the golden arches at one end, and a tiny spoon at the other. When lawmakers started cracking down on drug use in the late 1970s, it also looked at drug paraphernalia. One of the items on the list was the McDonald's coffee spoon. It was apparently being used to snort cocaine.

Reportedly, the National Federation of Parents for Drug-Free Youth contacted the president of McDonald's. He was told his spoon led an illicit double life as drug users were snorting cocaine with the spoon. The Drug-Free Organization requested that McDonald's redesign the spoon. The McDee's president protested, saying the company had over 4,500 restaurants at the time, and that it would be a massive undertaking. That's when parents for drug-free youth asked the McDonald's president how many kids he had, saying, do it for them and do it for America's kids.

So, McDonald's ended up replacing the spoon with a flat stir stick and shipped all the plastic spoons to other countries, where, according to mental floss, they were repurposed by drug dealers to measure heroin. Bubble wrap was first invented by engineer Alfred Fielding and a Swiss inventor named Mark Chauvin in 1957. Actually, it wasn't a wrap. It was a wallpaper. The pair started a company called the Sealed Air Corporation and developed a way to seal sheets of plastic together and vacuum-form patterned bubbles between the sheets. Textured wallpaper was all the rage and their bubble invention offered people an exceptional.

citing 3D wallpaper. But nobody was interested. Then one night, after a very bumpy plane flight, the two inventors wondered if their wallpaper could be used to protect fragile goods in transit. The perfect opportunity popped up in 1959 when IBM began shipping their new 1401 computers. Keeping them safe in transit proved to be tricky.

That's when bubble. wrap came to the rescue. The wallpaper was pitched to IBM as soft packaging for their fragile and expensive technology. IBM loved the idea, and bubble wallpaper was repurposed to be packing material. And while it's still fun to pop, there are now more sustainable packaging materials available. The treadmill was not invented to help you run and lose weight. Back in the Roman Empire days, the early treadmill was more of a tread wheel, where men would walk inside the wheel, which acted as a kind of winch, that allowed them to lift twice their weight. In the 1800s, farmers figured out if they put horses on treadmills,

they could produce more energy for their machines than they could with wind or water. Some say that's where the phrase horsepower comes from. In 1818 in Great Britain, a penal treadmill was created. Engineer William Cupid saw idle prisoners standing around and wanted to put them to work. Prisoners were put on large tread wheels that resembled paddle wheels. Inmates stood side by side on the wheel and put in up to 24,000 steps a day, which would act as a mill to grind corn and pump water. treadmills were also used for punishment.

But that punishment ended with the British Prison Act of 1898, which abolished hard labor in prisons. Then in the 1940s, Dr. Robert Bruce pioneered the use of a motorized treadmill for cardiac stress testing. Twenty years later, in the 1960s, the treadmill was reconfigured to become in-home exercise equipment, allowing people to walk or run regardless of the weather outside. And the treadmill, which was originally created to lift heavy weights,

generate energy and mill corn, has morphed into an exercise machine that tilts, offers speed control, heart rate monitoring, and interactive screens with exercise instructors. And it's still punishing. My dad believed in only two things, that Greeks should educate non-Greeks about being Greek, and that any ailment from psorias to poison ivy could be cured with Windex.

There are a lot of funny scenes in the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding, but none funnier than the father's ever-present bottle of Windex. Well, maybe he was right. Windex is primarily for window cleaning, hence the wind in Windex. But there are many more unintended uses. It can cut through. grease on back splashes and range hoods. It can brighten up jewelry. It can clean your toilet bulb. People swear windex repels insects. It can freshen up aluminum or plastic outdoor furniture.

People use clear windex to remove stains from clothing. And it can clean your marble or granite floors. What's that thing? It's a mosquito bite. Put some windex. That too. When we come back, taking a gregal. Gamble in Casinos.

Here's an unintended purpose I've never forgotten. Many years ago, I was doing the launch advertising for a casino in Canada. In the recording studio, I was having a casual conversation with the casino folks who were telling me about all the things they were learning about running a new casino. They noticed that different demographics would gamble at the same time every day. Mornings were always senior citizens. Lunch in early afternoon were salespeople aged 25 to 40. And evenings was a mix of people age 35 to 55.

But the casino noticed something unusual. The waste baskets in the washrooms were being stuffed with adult diapers. But it wasn't during the mornings when the seniors were gambling. It was in the evenings when a younger crowd was there. Turns out, serious gamblers didn't want to leave their slot machines or gaming tables, so they wore diapers so they could sit there for hours. Which brings a whole new meaning to the word, craps.

You know the saying, a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. Well, marketing is a bit like that too. You can manufacture a product, but you can't make people use it the way you advertise it. You may be excited that your new product cleans windows so well, but someone somewhere is going to be more excited that it repels mosquitoes. You might be proud of your mouthwash, but somebody is going to clean floors with it. Sometimes these unintended uses lead to incremental revenue for companies. I'm sure the Windex folks are a-okay with the fact people are having to replenish their

bottles so often. And the baking soda people light cigars knowing people are doing a lot more than baking with it. Other companies can only watch as their years of testing and research go straight down a newly clean toilet. And that's the conundrum of marketing. You can't control end use. You can aim all your advertising dollars at seniors who need adult diapers,

but there's a gambler out there who can't thank you enough when you're under the influence. I'm Terry O'Reilly. This episode was recorded in the Terestree 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. me at Terry O Influence. This podcast is powered by ACAST. Terry's top slogans of all time. Number 13. United Airlines, fly the friendly skies. See you next week.