Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly - S10E24 - Can’t Get Enough of That Wonderful Duff: Fake Hollywood Brands

Episode Date: June 17, 2021

This week, we talk about fake Hollywood brands. Whenever directors need a prop and there is no paid product placement, they have to use fake products. From Morley Cigarettes to Heisler beer to that wily ACME Corporation, these pretend brands have been around for decades. 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. new year new me season is here and honestly we're already over it enter felix the health care company helping canadians take a different approach to weight loss this year weight loss is more than just diet and exercise it can be about tackling genetics hormones metabolism felix

gets it they connect you with licensed healthcare practitioners online who'll create a personalized treatment plan that pairs your healthy lifestyle with a little help and a little extra support. Start your visit today at felix.ca. That's F-E-L-I-X.ca. Whether you're in your running era, Pilates era, or yoga era, dive into Peloton workouts that work with you. From meditating at your kid's game to mastering a strength program, they've got everything you need to keep knocking down your goals. No pressure to be who you're not. Just workouts and classes to strengthen who you are.

So no matter your era, make it your best with Peloton. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at with Peloton. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. This is an apostrophe podcast production. Your teeth look whiter than noon, noon, noon You're not you when you're hungry You're a good hand with all things. You're under the influence with Terry O'Reilly. While watching movies or television shows, you've no doubt noticed this. Whenever a phone number is used, it begins with 555.

There's a reason for that. Decades ago, phone numbers were very different. In those days, you needed an operator to complete the call. Phone numbers began with an easily recognized word followed by numbers. For example, you could ask the operator for Pennsylvania 6500. Then, over time, the words were replaced with digits that corresponded to the first two letters of the word. So the P-E of Pennsylvania 6500 became 736500, as the letter P was found on the 7 key

and the letter E was found on the 3 key. That worked fine until it came to the 5 key, which corresponded to the letters J, K, and L. Not many major cities began with those combination of letters. So the phone companies kept 555 numbers for internal use only. 555-1212 became the number for directory assistance. When movies and TV shows began using phone numbers more frequently in their plot lines,

people who actually owned those numbers started to complain that they were getting too many prank phone calls. So the phone companies reserved 5550100 through to 5550199 for fictional use. Some films as far back as the early 60s used the 555 prefix. In the mid-70s, the running joke on the Rockford files was that every episode began with private-eyed Jim Rockford getting a message on his answering service

from someone chasing him for money. This is Jim Rockford. At the tone, leave your name and message. I'll get back to you. It's Maury. Got a call from Davis at the IRS. You were right. They bounced your return. Call me. A close-up of his phone revealed his number, 555-2368. One of the most famous uses of the 555 prefix was Ghostbusters. Are you troubled by strange noises in the middle of the night?

Do you experience feelings of dread in your basement or attic? Have you or any of your family ever seen a spook, specter, or ghost? If the answer is yes, then don't wait another minute. Pick up your phone and call the professionals. Go Ghostbusters! The number on the screen said 555-2368. Same number as Jim Rockford. Hmm, wonder if they ever got their calls mixed up.

While almost all films and TV shows chose fake 555 numbers, one film didn't. It was called Bruce Almighty, starring Jim Carrey as Bruce. In that film, God contacts Bruce via his pager. It was called Bruce Almighty, starring Jim Carrey as Bruce. In that film, God contacts Bruce via his pager. The number that showed up was 776-2323. No area code was given, but people started calling the number all over North America to see if God would answer. That led to a lot of angry people with the number 776-2323 having to deal with those calls.

One of them was a pastor in Wisconsin who would respond to the question, Are you God? by saying, No, but I can take a message. Soon, that heavenly number was creating a hell of a problem. So, for the DVD release of Bruce Almighty,

the movie studio changed the pager number to read 5550123. While there are fake phone numbers in Hollywood, there are also a number of fake products. These fake products look like the real thing, but they're not. From cigarettes to beer to an infamous mail order company to an airline, these fake brands have been used over and over again in hundreds of movies and TV shows. You see them so often, you could be excused for thinking they're real.

You're under the influence. There is an interesting push-pull that goes on in Hollywood movies and TV shows. When a product is required for a scene, there is a big opportunity for paid product placement, and brands can benefit greatly from being in the right property. The most famous example is probably when Reese's Pieces was used in the movie E.T. Sales soared. In the years before the rise of paid product placement, one of two scenarios was at work.

Either the entire TV program was being sponsored by a certain brand, and therefore directors needed to use a similar generic prop in the show so as not to offend the sponsor, or films were afraid of attracting lawsuits if brands were used without permission. So the solution was to use generic brands, like beer bottles that just said beer on the labels, or jars of coffee that just said coffee. But there is a third, more interesting solution in Hollywood land.

Fake brands. And those same fake brands show up over and over again in various films and TV shows. If you were to take a closer look at smoking scenes in films and TV shows, chances are the brand of choice was Morley Cigarettes. Show to show, film to film, if a cigarette pack was pulled from a pocket or offered to someone, the brand was usually Morley. But you couldn't find it in stores, because Morley Cigarettes don't exist, except in Hollywood. They were developed by a 100-year-old prop company called the Earl Hayes Press in California.

The first known use of Morley cigarettes was back in 1960. The director who chose them was someone named Alfred Hitchcock. The movie was Psycho. Near the end of the film, a psychiatrist played by actor Simon Oakland explains Norman Bates' disorder to the audience. During the scene, he pulls a cigarette out of a pack of Morley's. One year later, Morley's made the jump to television in an episode of The Twilight Zone titled Static,

where viewers heard several radio ads for Morley's cigarettes as part of the episode's plot. Morley's would show up in several Twilight Zone episodes, including one of the most famous starring William Shatner titled Nightmare at 20,000 Feet. The first time Morley's was actually seen on TV screens was in 1961, in an episode of Naked City. In the scene, a relatively unknown actor named Robert Redford offers a Morley cigarette to a homeless man.

A pack of Morley's becomes a key piece of evidence later in the show. Morley made its next appearance in 1962 in an episode of the Dick Van Dyke show when Morley, Amsterdam's on-screen wife, Pickles, offers some Morley chocolate cigarettes to the Petri's young son, Richie. How's the Indians and the cowboys and everything?

Oh, Richie, Richie, Richie, I brought you some chocolate cigarettes. Thanks, Aunt Pickles. You're welcome. Three decades later, Morley cigarettes really lit up. In 1998, the four largest U.S. tobacco companies entered into what was called the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement. Forty-six states with ongoing lawsuits against big tobacco offered to settle their cases if the industry agreed to sweeping restrictions in their business practices.

One of those big changes stipulated that tobacco companies could no longer accept payments or make payments to be included in a TV show or film. Hollywood could still use actual tobacco brands in their productions, but no money or other considerations could change hands. Therefore, with no financial incentive to use real cigarette brands and hesitant to offend other paying customers, Hollywood lit up Morley's like never before. The red and white Morley package,

now designed to resemble Marlboro's, was a key aspect of the Smoking Man character in The X-Files, where the brand was actually given a storyline in an episode titled Brand X in Season 7. Morley's have shown up in shows like Frasier, Friends, That 70s Show, Breaking Bad, Orange is the New Black, The Walking Dead, Lost, and the episode of Seinfeld where George starts smoking in front

of his anti-smoking fiancée to try and break their engagement. I've always smoked. I've never seen you smoke. Oh yeah, well, big smoker. I gave it up for a while, but it was too tough. You know, I got the willpower. Morleys have even become an inside joke. In the series Californication, actor David Duchovny smokes them,

a quiet nod to his past X-Files series. And Robert Redford's character smokes them in the movie Spy Game, 40 years after he lit his first Morley in Naked City. Morleys have been the brand of choice in Hollywood

for over 60 years. Morleys are not the only fake cigarette brand in La La Land. There is another brand that has appeared in many movies, most of those in Quentin Tarantino's universe. They are called Red Apple Cigarettes. The yellow packaging is distinctive. It features a green worm with a creepy human face crawling out of a big red apple.

The first time Red Apple red apple cigarettes appeared on film was in Tarantino's breakout movie, Pulp Fiction. Since then, the fake brand has appeared in over ten movies, including Kill Bill Vol. 1, From Dusk Till Dawn, Inglourious Bastards, and The Hateful Eight. The biggest red apple appearance is in Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Brad Pitt's character, Cliff Booth, smokes Red Apples, and Leonardo DiCaprio's character, Rick Dalton,

actually does a commercial for the fake brand in an end-credits scene, suggesting a fake history that begins in 1862. Hi, this is Rick Dalton, better known as Bounty Hunter Jake Cahill, speaking on behalf of Red Apple Cigarettes. Now, I smoke red apples, been smoking them for years,

but since the Red Apple Tobacco Company has been around since 1862, you'll see Jake Cahill smoke red apple too. Back in Jake's day, red apple came in a pouch and he had to roll his own. But today, Red Apple comes factory rolled for the best drag with

the best tobacco flavor with less burn on your throat than any other non-filtered cigarette. Red Apple cigarettes even have a slogan. Take a bite and feel alright. Take a bite of a red apple. The fake brand also appeared in other movies,

including Planet Terror and, as an inside joke, in Romy and Michelle's high school reunion, as Quentin Tarantino was dating Romy star Mira Sorvino at the time. It was generally believed that Quentin Tarantino had an active rebellion against product placement. But in the documentary The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, Tarantino claims that's not the case. He says that in his violent and edgy movies, his requests for product placement have usually been refused. Beer is another fake brand found in movies and TV.

Unlike some other product categories, many beer makers are hesitant to place their brands in films because bad things often happen in storylines after beer is introduced. And bad guys are often the guzzlers. So, Hollywood had to manufacture its own beer. While there have been several fake brews, the most popular, by far, is Heisler beer. Created in the late 90s by another Hollywood prop house, there's the original Heisler Gold Ale, Heisler Light, and even vintage Heisler made specifically for shows set in

the 1940s through 80s. It's been called the Bud Light of fake beers. You can spot Heisler beer in TV shows like New Girl, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Two and a Half Men, CSI Miami, Parks and Rec, How I Met Your Mother, and many more,

including films such as Superbad and The Social Network. Heisler beer has a timeless look. The red and gold logo looks vaguely European, and the name suggests a German brew, so it can appear in a bar scene in Texas or a club in New York. And while real beer makers are wary of appearing in dicey scenes, Heisler welcomes it. That's one of the reasons they manufacture breakaway bottles that can be safely smashed over anything, like sound engineers. Thank you.

Like beer makers, airlines are often reluctant to allow their brands to be used in film and TV shows, particularly if there is a plane crash plot. And think about how many shows and movies you've watched where there is trouble in the air. For that reason, Hollywood had to invent its own brand. Enter Oceanic Airlines. The first known use of Oceanic Airlines goes all the way back to 1965 to a TV series called Flipper. Flipper was a show about a warden at a marine reserve in Florida, his two young sons, and a pet dolphin named Flipper. Think of it as a wetter version of Lassie.

In an episode titled The Ditching, Oceanic Flight 17 crashes into the ocean. Emergency, emergency. Up beneath the tower, this is Oceanic Airways Flight 17. We're on our last leg into Bonita Island. Since then, Oceanic Airlines, sometimes also known as Oceanic Airways, has been used in dozens of Hollywood productions.

In 1996, Oceanic Airlines Flight 343 was hijacked by terrorists in the movie Executive Decision, starring Kurt Russell and Steven Seagal, and most of the action happens on the airplane. Oceanic Airlines appeared in movies such as Bridget Jones' The Edge of Reason, For Love of the Game, and Survivor. The fake airline has also appeared in comic books and video games. On TV, Oceanic Airlines has appeared in dozens of shows like Crossing Jordan, Diagnosis Murder, Futurama, The Goldbergs, Grey's Anatomy, and the good old

X-Files. But maybe the most famous use of Oceanic Airlines was in the TV show Lost. The entire series is centered on the aftermath of the crash of Oceanic Airlines was in the TV show Lost. The entire series is centered on the aftermath of the crash of Oceanic Airlines Flight 815,

which was on its way from Sydney to Los Angeles. ABC even created a website and commercials for the fake airline. Oceanic Airlines. In the air since 1979. Oceanic Airlines. 30 years air since 1979. Oceanic Airlines.

30 years with a perfect safety record. Oceanic Airlines. Oceanic Airlines. And some fake brands have even made the jump into the real world. And we'll be right back. In case nobody's told you, weight loss goes beyond the old And we'll be right back. It can also be about our genetics, hormones, metabolism. Felix connects you with online licensed healthcare practitioners who understand that everybody is different and can pair your healthy lifestyle with the right support to reach your goals. Start your visit today at Felix.ca. That's F-E-L-I-X.ca.

Whether you're in your running era, Pilates era, or yoga era, dive into Peloton workouts that work with you. From meditating at your kid's game to mastering a strength program, they've got everything you need to keep knocking down your goals. No pressure to be who you're not. Just workouts and classes to strengthen who you are. So no matter your era, make it your best with Peloton. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca.

You're listening to Season 10 of Under the Influence. If you're enjoying this episode, you might also like Show Me the Money, The World of Product Placement, Season 4, Episode 17. It's free in our archives wherever you download your pods. A handful of fake Hollywood brands have actually become real brands. In the movie Forrest Gump, for example, Forrest and Lieutenant Dan start the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company in memory of Forrest's shrimp-loving friend Bubba Blue. Two years after the movie came out, Paramount Pictures approached a seafood hospitality company to create a restaurant based on the theme of the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. It was an interesting request.

Dramas don't necessarily lend themselves to theme restaurants and merchandise, as a rule, unlike movies with cuddly stars like The Lion King or Aladdin. But the name of the game in the restaurant business, besides good food, is brand name awareness, and Forrest Gump had been seen by over 55 million people in the U.S. alone. Besides shrimp dishes, there is a line of merchandise including Run Forrest Run t-shirts, and diners are given a Stop Forrest Stop sign at their tables to flag waiters down. The Bubba Gum Shrimp Company started 25 years ago in Monterey, California, and today there are close to 40 locations worldwide. The chain generates over $400 million in annual revenue.

And that's a lot of shrimp. Then there is Duff Beer, the Budweiser of the Simpsons universe. It was first introduced in an episode in 1990, which means the beer is over 30 years old. Duff Beer pokes fun at the stereotypical, cheaply produced, middle-of-the-road, mass-marketed American lager. Duff Beer not only has a slogan, you can't get enough of that wonderful Duff, it even has a spokesperson named Duff Man. Hey, it's Duff Man, a guy in a costume that creates awareness of Duff. Duff Man wants to party down with the man who sent in 10,000 Duff labels to bring me here today.

In his memoir, Guns N' Roses bassist Duff McKagan says the beer was named after him. He claims the show called him up and asked if they could use his name. But a writer from The Simpsons says that's not true. It was coined by another Simpsons writer who had never heard of McKagan. The Simpsons is a powerful brand. It is the longest-running scripted TV series in Hollywood history,

and it's so widely distributed that Fox executives say there is a Simpsons episode airing somewhere in the world every minute of the day, 365 days a year. That's why various breweries around the world have tried to cash in on Duff Beer

by brewing real versions of it, only to be shut down by lawyers from 21st Century Fox. But it got harder for Fox to protect Duff Beer because it's difficult to trademark a product that doesn't actually exist. There were a particularly high number of pirated Duff Beer brands in South America, so the only way for the studio to protect the brand was to actually get into the beer business in Chile.

But Fox struggled to protect the Duff brand around the world. Every country is different with different laws. And Fox is in a difficult position. It can't license a beer in the U.S. because the Simpsons cartoon also appeals to children. Fox once licensed Duff to an Australian brewer, but regulators there shut it down for the same reason. The predicament is interesting.

Fox can't license a beer in most jurisdictions because the cartoon appeals to children, but breweries in other countries can because they aren't creators of the cartoon. Let's get some beer in you and then it's right to bed. It's a confounding legal conundrum. But maybe the most famous fake Hollywood brand of all time is Acme.

It has made an appearance in just about every Wile E. Coyote and Roadrunner cartoon. Acme was created by Chuck Jones and the geniuses at Looney Tunes. Tongue firmly planted in cheek, the word Acme comes from a Greek word that means pinnacle, zenith, and excellence, which is hilarious when you think of all the malfunctions Wile E. Coyote experienced. The slogan of the Acme Corporation is

quality is our number one is, I love that. In the cartoon, Acme is a mysterious pre-Amazon mail order marketplace where you can buy anything. From dehydrated boulders to rocket-powered roller skates to anvils and earthquake pills. Back in 1990, a New Yorker magazine writer named Ian Frazier wrote a hilarious fictional lawsuit titled Coyote vs. the Acme Company. In the complaint, the plaintiff states that, quote, On 85 separate occasions, Mr. Coyote had purchased, through the Acme Company's mail order department,

certain products which did cause him bodily injury due to defects in manufacture or improper cautionary labeling, unquote. The lawsuit goes on to say, Such injuries sustained by Mr. Coyote have temporarily restricted his ability to make a living in his profession of predator, and that Mr. Coyote is self-employed and thus not eligible for workman's compensation. Unquote. The wording is hilarious. Injuries are listed as, 1. Severe singeing of the hair on the head, neck, and muzzle 2. Sideways displacement of the tongue

and 3. A series of horizontal folds in the body emitting an off-key, accordion-like wheezing with every step. Mr. Coyote was seeking damages totaling $38 million. Here's the best part. Warner Bros. has announced it is in the process of developing a movie called Coyote vs. Acme. Based on the New Yorker article, the live-action-slash-animated hybrid film will be a hilarious courtroom saga where the coyote sues Acme for all the malfunctioning hardware. And there is an actual release date of July 2023.

I wonder if the biggest secret of all will be spilled in that court case. That the fictional Acme company is actually a wholly owned subsidiary of Roadrunner Corporation. I guess we'll have to wait and see. Back in 2016, Time magazine created a list of the most influential fictional companies of all time. The list was assembled and deliberated on at length by Time's technology, business and culture teams. Alongside Wayne Enterprises and Stark Industries, Acme and Duff Beer factored high. It's fascinating that these fictional companies reside in our minds as vividly as real brands.

Hollywood has been addicted to Morley cigarettes for over 60 years. Heisler Beer gets almost as much screen time as Budweiser. And Oceanic Airlines happily steps in when there's turbulence in the plot lines. It's also interesting when fake steps into reality. There are Bubba Gump shrimp restaurants around the world, and you can actually buy a pack of fake Morley's online from the prop company.

Fake brands stand in when real brands can't, shouldn't, or in Tarantino's case, won't. And many of them have brand awareness that real-life brands can only dream of. Proving they can fake it and make it when you're under the influence. I'm Terry O'Reilly. This episode was recorded in the Terrastream Mobile Recording Studio. Producer, Debbie O'Reilly. Sound Engineer, Keith Ullman. Theme music by Ari Posner and Ian Lefevre,

research, Patrick James Aslan. Follow me on Twitter and Instagram at Terry O Influence. See you next week for our last episode of the season. Exercise extreme caution while using jet powered roller skates or giant elastic bands. Manufacturer is not responsible once product has been removed from package. Offer only valid in Acme, Alberta.