Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly - Newsjacking

Episode Date: May 30, 2026

This encore episode of Under The Influence is one of our favourites of 2026.Lately, companies have been hijacking breaking news stories to create ads.When thieves broke into the Louvre with a ladder, the ladder company quickly produced a tongue-in-cheek ad.When the Oscars read the wrong Best Picture winner, an optometry chain made fun of the mix-up.It’s called Newsjacking – and it’s becoming a powerful marketing tactic.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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Alka-Seltzer will. What a relief. You're under the influence with Terry O'Reilly. On September 19th, 2024, the television series titled Monsters, The Lyle and Eric Menendez story, streamed on Netflix. The nine-episode series debuted as the number one show on Netflix

worldwide and was the most viewed streaming content, according to Nielsen. It earned 11 Emmy nominations winning one and three Golden Globe nominations. Needless to say, the high-profile show put the Menendez brothers back in the news. While the TV series let viewers reach their own conclusions about the verdict, it heightened the anticipation of the upcoming parole hearings scheduled for the brothers, who had been incarcerated for 35 years. And all that news heightened the demand for a certain basketball card. Mark Jackson was a point guard in the NBA.

He played from 1987 until 2004. Jackson was with a number of teams in his career, including playing 54 games for the Toronto Raptors in the 2000-2001 season. Jackson had a pretty good career. and is number six on the all-time assist list. As with all NBA players, his image was on a trading card every year. But one of his cards, in particular, is a collector's item. Specifically, his 1990 card when he played for the New York Knicks.

The reason Jackson's 1990 card is so valuable has nothing to do with his career, nothing to do with points scored or games played. It all has to do with the photo on the trading card. The card shows Jackson passing the ball to his right with the crowd behind him. But if you look closely to Jackson's left, sitting court side, are the two Menendez brothers. The photo was taken when the brothers were attending a Knicks game at Madison Square Garden after the murder of their parents in 1989, a year before their arrests in 1990. During that period, the Menendez brothers used the insurance money they inherited to finance a lavish lifestyle.

Their $700,000 spending spree included new cars, Rolex watches, $50,000 for a tennis coach, a $300,000 down payment on a new restaurant, and courtside tickets to the Knicks. That was the night they were immortalized on Mark Jackson's 1990 basketball cars. When the highly rated TV series put the Menendez brothers back in the news, Jackson's trading card suddenly took on incredible interest. eBay eventually pulled the listing for the card on its site, saying the card violated its policy because it was affiliated with known murderers. eBay eventually lifted that ban, and the sales of the card continued to mount.

To give you an idea of how popular the card became, PSA, or the Professional Sports Authenticator, is the largest and most trusted card grading service in the world. It grades cards on a one to ten basis, 10 being the rarest, best condition, most valuable. To date, collectors have had PSA grade over 7,000 copies of the 1990 Jackson card. The only other cards from the 1990s set, that have been graded more frequently?

The two Michael Jordan cards. For even more context, the Mark Jackson card originally sold for 25 cents. But when the Menendez brothers were back in the news again, the price of Jackson's card went up to $50. The price of Jackson cards rated 10 by PSA shot up 100%, selling for between $600 and $1,500. US. The fact the Menendez brothers were captured in that Mark Jackson trading card photo is pure coincidence. And the fact the card has become more valuable because the brothers were back in the news is pure serendipity.

Proving, once again, that timing is everything. Timing is everything in the world of marketing, too. And leveraging news stories that go viral is becoming a valuable marketing tactic. The official term is news jacking when a brand hijacks a breaking news story and creates a second story that gains attention. News jacking requires very little effort, just a little creativity to link the brand to the story

and a very quick turnaround. When done right, it can massively expand the reach of a brand, all without spending $1 on media. When it goes wrong, it's just massively embarrassing. You're under the influence. On Sunday, October 19th, 2025, thieves mounted a daring daylight break-in at the Louvre in Paris. At 9.30 a.m. local time, thieves disguised as construction workers

extended a long, motorized furniture ladder with a bucket, up to a balcony. To passing pedestrians and motorists, nothing seemed to miss. It looked like yet another maintenance, project at the Louvre. The thieves climbed into the motorized bucket and silently raised it up the ladder to the balcony where they smashed a window. Once inside, they cut into the display cases, grabbing eight pieces of the crown jewels worth 88 million euros.

Then, they jumped back into the bucket, lowered it down the ladder to the street, and escaped on scooters. Total time inside the lounguels. Lube, four minutes. It was a brazen and shocking robbery. News of the heist spread like wildfire around the world. While news of the robbery stunned the public, it was particularly fascinating to a certain German company called Booker.

As they watched the news footage, they suddenly noticed something and zoomed in. That's when they realized the motorized furniture ladder the thieves had used and left behind was in fact, made by their company. It was a Booker Agilo furniture ladder. That made the news doubly shocking to them. But once they realized no one was hurt in the robbery, they decided to take advantage of the story by using a little humor. The very next day, the Booker company created an ad. It featured a photo of the actual Booker furniture ladder leaning up against the Louvre balcony.

The headline said, the next time you need things to move quickly. The ad went on to say, the Booker Agilo transports your treasures, weighing up to 400 kilograms at 42 meters a minute whisper quiet, thanks to its electric motor. They placed that ad on social media. Booker says the response to the news jacking was overwhelming. The company's Instagram and Facebook pages usually reach around 15,000 people, That ad reached 1.7 million, and 99% of the reactions were positive. It was a crown jewel example of news jacking.

The Louvre Heist story went viral. The story was relevant to the Booker brand. The latter company had moved quickly while the story was hot, and the resulting ad gained a lot of attention. The British Geological Survey, or BGS, is an organization that monitors earthquakes across the UK. As a rule, the organization doesn't get much press, and it might be fair to say the general public isn't overly familiar with the BGS.

But not long ago, the organization jumped on a viral news story. The BGS maintains a network of seismic instruments around the United Kingdom. These instruments are very sophisticated and sensitive, and can detect even small ground motions. Typically, the BGS detects about 300 small earthquakes a year in the UK, but only 30 are of a high enough magnitude to be felt by humans. As it happened on Friday, June 7, 2024, Taylor Swift was performing at the Murray Field Stadium in Edinburgh, Scotland.

She performed their three nights in a row, and during all three concerts, the British Geological Survey, registered seismic movement. That seismic movement came from the audiences at the Taylor Swift concerts. The BGS put out a news release stating that Taylor Swift's fans made the Earth move.

While I've talked about Swift quakes before, the British Geological Survey Organization went one step further. It actually calculated which songs caused the biggest commotion. Taylor Swift shows are precisely timed and exquisitely choreographed, so every show runs at exactly the same time intervals every night.

Therefore, the seismic spikes occurred at the same points every night. One of the volcanologists from the BGS attended the Swift concerts and took photos and videos of each song, which then allowed the BGS to cross-reference when seismic spikes happened in relation to the time stamps on the photos. So, according to the Brits, Geological Survey Organization, the following three Taylor Swift songs created the most seismic movement, cruel summer, ready for it, and champagne problems. Those were the songs that caused the 73,000

nightly fans to dance, cheer, and stomp the most. The Swifties generated 8 kilowatts or 80,000 watts of power. And the largest movement of the earth wasn't actually during a song. It occurred during the four minutes of applause after the song Champagne Problems. That particular movement was detected by two different monitoring stations, the furthest being six kilometers or 3.7 miles away. It was kind of a seismic moment for the BGS as its news story got shared around the world. Back in 2016, news of a certain Hollywood divorce took international media by storm. And it wasn't just any Hollywood couple. It was Hollywood royalty.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were splitting up. The split consumed gossip magazines, newspaper column inches, and TV screens. That was when Norwegian Airlines decided to news jack the conversations that were taking place around water coolers, coffee shops, and offices around the world. To promote Norwegian Airlines low fare from Oslo to Los Angeles, it ran a large ad in newspapers. The ad simply said, Brad is single. Oslo to Los Angeles one way, 169 pounds. It was a very funny, quick response to the news of the breakup.

It also demonstrated how nimble Norwegian Airlines is. I don't think big North American Airlines could move that fast or be that bold. Norwegian Airlines says it has a challenger brand mentality, meaning they're not afraid to disrupt the industry and shake up the status quo. They gain market share by being bold. And the Brad is Single ad was perfectly in keeping with Norwegian Airlines established cheeky brand character. Not only did that news jacking get the airline a lot of business, It became a news item around the world. When we come back, a pizza company news jacks the wrong hashtag.

If you remember back to the pandemic in 2020, there was a lot of news coming out daily. And when the world went into lockdown, life as we knew it turned upside down. One of the most unusual ads that leverage that lockdown news came from Uber. It ran an emotional video on social media, showing various people around the world dealing with the lockdown. The message? Thanks for not riding with Uber. It was a jarring message coming from a company that moves people,

asking people not to move. It urged drivers and riders to stay home and save lives. The video gained over half a million views almost instantly, and news of the message went viral. While news jacking can attract a huge audience, it can be a double-edged sword. When the hashtag Why I Stayed first appeared in September of 2014, it was to shine a spotlight on serious issues surrounding domestic violence. Thousands of women began opening up about why they stayed in violent relationships.

While the key to news jacking is to move quickly, sometimes brands can move too quickly. Di Giorno Pizza tweeted the hashtag why I stayed, then added, you had pizza. It got a torrent of backlash. Soon after, DiGerno tweeted, A million apologies, did not read what the hashtag was about before posting. And therein lies the tripwire with news jacking. It has to happen quickly, but it still requires quick homework first. Back in 2019, news emerged that McDonald's had lost its Big Mac trademark in Europe.

McDee's lost the trademark after a nine-year legal battle with an Irish fast food chain called Supermax. Supermax was founded in 1978 by Pat McDonough, and Mac was his nickname when he was a college-gallic football player. Supermax had faced opposition from McDonald's over the naming of some of its menu items. like a burger called the Mighty Mac, which shared many ingredients with the Big Mac. McDonald's suggested that the similarity in names might confuse customers. Supermax argued that McDonald's lawsuits

were preventing the chain from expanding outside of Ireland. So, the case was put before the European Union intellectual property office. When the final decision was made, it sided with Super Bowl. Supermax, saying McDonald's hadn't proven genuine use of the Big Mac trademark in the EU. Specifically, McDonald's had lost the Big Mac trademark when it came to chicken burgers because it had not used the trademark continuously for five years, which trademark law requires.

That left the Big Mac trademark up for grabs. Supermax rejoiced, saying it was a victory for all small businesses. That news also delighted Burger King in Sweden. The Swedish Burger King couldn't resist news jacking the story. Because anybody could use the name Big Mac now, it created a limited-time menu called Not Big Macs. For example, it renamed a burger like a Big Mac but actually big. A burger combo was named kind of like a Big Mac, but juicier and tastier.

Another Big Burger was rechristened, the burger Big Mac wished it was. Burger King then put out a video on social media that showed customers actually ordering their newly named burgers. Anything but a Big Mac? Yes. Kind of like a Big Mac, but juicier and tastier? The burger Big Mac wished it was. Anything but a Big Mac? I'd like a Big Mac, but actually big.

The Not Big Mac's news jacking not only resulted in millions of media impressions, it was the best January sales week ever for Burger King in Sweden. When we come back, McDonald's takes a swing at news jacking. During the 2014 election in India, voter turnout was historically low. 280 million of the 900 million citizens on the electoral register opted not to vote in the general election. Most of those non-voters were young. Five years later, in 2019, over 130 million young people were now eligible to vote. But news stories again predicted another low turnout.

So McDonald's in India decided to do a little news jacking on a year. election day. At various McDonald's locations, the staff did something highly unusual. They took customer orders, but didn't give them what they asked for. This is panere. I asked for chicken burger. I have ordered for McChicin. I know, ma'am, but mecane is what you get today. Every time a young voting age customer came up to order, the staff chose what they got instead. Yes, sir, this is what we have chosen for you today, sir. What do you mean by you choose? Sir, exactly, sir.

I chose for you, sir. When customers insisted they get what they ordered, the McDonald's staff explained what was going on. I have paid for it. You better give me what I want. Yes, ma'am, but have you voted? What? You didn't vote, right?

Man, if you don't vote, you lose the right to choose. When customers were finally given what they ordered, the liner on their food tray said, when you give up your vote, you give up your right to choose. Customers were then reminded that the voting booths were still open and they had time to cast their vote. A video was created from that day and was posted on social media where it attracted a big reaction.

The hashtag was, make your choice. Did it help? Possibly. Voter turnout in that election was 67%, the highest ever in a general Indian election. Specsavers is one of my favorite advertisers. It always does very funny, effective ads. In one television commercial, a woman marches into a restaurant

and is shocked to find her bearded husband dining with another woman. How could you do this to me, Barry? She throws a glass of water in his face. That's when she hears this. I'm over here, Bev. Her actual husband, also bearded, is sitting at another table. Speck Savers, sponsors Emmerdale. funny.

Were you watching the Oscars back in 2017? If you did, you would remember what happened on stage when Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway announced the biggest award of the night, the winner of the best picture category. Bady opens the envelope, looks at the card inside, then hesitates. He looks confused. And the Academy Award for Best Picture. You're awesome. Come on.

Then he looks off stage. He hands the card to Faye Dunaway, who announces. La La Land. Then the producer, director, and cast of La La Land jump up onto the stage and begin their acceptance speeches. Two full minutes later, this happened. I'm sorry, no. There's a mistake.

Moonlight, you guys won best picture. This is not a joke. This is not a joke. I'm afraid they read the wrong thing. Moonlight. Best picture. It was unbelievable. A colossal mix-up.

Only two people from Pricewaterhouse know the winners beforehand. They alone bring the classic red envelopes in closely held briefcases to the Oscars that night. Their job is to guard the envelopes and hand them to the right presenter. When it came time for the best picture, the biggest award of the night, the Price Waterhouse person handed the wrong envelope to warn Beatty. Instead of the one that said Moonlight was the winner, Bady was given the envelope that said Emma Stone had won best actress for Lola Land, which was a previous award that evening. That's why Bady hesitated when he looked at the card.

He knew it was wrong, but it was the card he was handed. When he gave the card to Faye Dunaway to read out loud, her eyes went straight to Lola Land. As you can imagine, that Oscar screw-up was big news that shot around the world. And good old specks savers saw a perfect news jacking opportunity. The very next morning after the Oscars, it put up digital billboards that said, Not getting the best picture?

The billboard showed a call. card being pulled out of a red envelope in front of an audience. The writing on that card said should have gone to spec savers. The concept of news jacking has been around for a while, but it is clearly becoming an increasingly popular marketing tactic. For brands, it offers the potential to gain a lot of attention. It requires a nimble team to first spot an opportunity, then quickly create an ad while the story is still hot, then toss it out into the world and cross their fingers. News jacking is almost always a double-edged sword.

Lots of people laughed at the Louvre Ladder ad, but others thought it was in bad taste. The British Geological Survey and Norwegian Airlines had fun jumping on news stories, and the Specksaver's Oscar's ad was a hoot. but it didn't go so well for DeGerno Pizza. The upside, of course, is that news jacking doesn't cost any media dollars. The downside is that brands have to jump on a news story immediately, with virtually no time for contemplation or second-guessing.

Sometimes you catch lightning in a bottle. Sometimes it goes horribly sideways, and sometimes it gets weird. Just ask Mark Jackson. 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, tunage provided by APM music. Follow me at Terry O'Influence. This podcast is powered by ACAST. Terry's top slogans of all time. Number 22 Maxwell House Coffee

Good to the Last Drop See you next week