Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly - S11E15 - Surprising Origin Stories

Episode Date: April 16, 2022

This week on Under The Influence, we tell the surprising origin stories of some famous products and brands. Because sometimes, backstories have backstories.We’ll tell a surprising tale about Coca Cola and the Civil War. We’ll delve into the bootlegger background of NASCAR.And we’ll tell the story of how the Lamborghini supercar began with a tractor… and an insult. 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. We'll see you next time. new locations. What matters is that you have something there to adapt with you, whether you need a challenge or rest. And Peloton has everything you need, whenever you need it. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. This is an apostrophe podcast production. Philanthropy Podcast Production You're not you when you're hungry.

You're in good hands with all things. You're under the influence with Terry O'Reilly. When the Beatles released a new single in August of 1968, it wasn't just a new song. It was also released on their own brand new label. When their manager Brian Epstein died in 1967, the band decided to form a company and manage their own affairs. Paul McCartney came up with a name for the new company, Apple,

and the new record label was to feature a green Granny Smith apple. The origin story of the famous Beatles label is well known, but there is another, lesser-known aspect to that story. Because the label almost didn't see the light of day. The reason? Record distributors thought it was pornographic. The Apple record label was inspired by a Rene Magritte painting McCartney had purchased. Magritte often used green apples in his paintings.

The Beatles hired an advertising agency designer named Gene Mahon to create the label. Mahon proposed a full apple on side A and a sliced apple on side B. The first Beatles single to feature the new Apple label was Hey Jude. Side B was Revolution. That's when the trouble started. A promotional package introducing Apple and the new single was sent out to radio stations and record distributors across the country. Two days later, a letter from the president of Capitol Records in Los Angeles

was rushed to Apple Records in London, England. He began the letter saying he had received an urgent call from a very large and influential record distributor asking if the new Apple record label was a joke. The distributor asked if the Beatles were really going to try and sell records with this pornographic label. The Capitol president didn't know what he was talking about. That's when the distributor said that on side B,

the center of the sliced apple looked just like a vagina. And here was the kicker. The distributor didn't think big record store chains would be willing to stock the vaginal record. While the U.S. singles had a big 1.5-inch hole in the middle, obliterating the apple's center, the U.K. singles only had a small spindle hole, and the promotional package featured both. The Capitol Records president, fearful that Hey Jude would be dead on arrival, suggested airbrushing the sliced white apple to remove the center detail.

But the Beatles, being the Beatles, apple to remove the center detail. But the Beatles, being the Beatles, refused to pander to anybody. Hey Jude was also 7 minutes and 11 seconds long, and record executives said radio stations wouldn't play a single that long. Lennon said, They'll play it if it's us. He was right. It became their longest charting single of all time. And the Apple label, which was on the verge of being pulled,

stayed exactly as it was. Origin stories are often surprising when you dig down to the core. Sometimes the origin story of a famous product has more to it than meets the eye. Sometimes origin stories have been altered over time. Sometimes the story has been sanitized. And other times, the difference between an origin story and what really happened is apples and oranges. You're under the influence. The origin story of Coca-Cola has been told often.

It was created in Atlanta, Georgia, by a pharmacist named John Pemberton in 1886. The drink contained coca leaves from South America and extracts from a cola nut produced by a species of African trees. It began as a syrup that was mixed with soda water and was sold for a nickel to customers at pharmacy counters. Pemberton's bookkeeper, Frank Robinson, not only came up with the name Coca-Cola, gleaned from the drink's two active ingredients, he also created the antique script logo still used today. The first year, they only sold $50 worth of the soft drink. But Robinson wasn't just a good accountant.

He was a good marketer. He posted signs all around town and on streetcars that said, Drink Coca-Cola. Then the really big break came when Coca-Cola was finally sold in bottles. And that's the story in a cola nutshell. But there's an even more surprising backstory to that backstory. Research suggests the part that is usually left out happened before the origin story you just heard. John Pemberton had enlisted in the Confederate Army when the Civil War broke out.

He organized a battalion and reached the rank of lieutenant colonel. Pemberton was in the direct line of fire when Union troops attacked the city of Columbus, Georgia and suffered a severe saber wound to his chest. Like many other Civil War veterans, it is believed he became addicted to morphine

to ease his pain. Seeking a cure from his addiction, he began experimenting with alternatives to morphine, which led him to experiment with coca leaves and coca wine. The resulting beverage was sold to war veterans

suffering from pain, drug addiction, and depression. When Atlanta introduced prohibition legislation in 1886, Pemberton removed the alcohol element, added carbonated water instead, and sold it as a fountain drink rather than a medicine. And that's where we pick up the original origin story. And the rest is Coca-Cola history. It's an origin story with an origin story.

Coca-Cola, initially created as a morphine alternative due to a sword stabbing in the Civil War. Speaking of prohibition, when the production, importation, transportation and sale of alcoholic beverages was banned in the U.S. from 1920 to 1933, that didn't stop bootleggers. In Canada, prohibition was technically in place from 1918 to 1920, although some provinces held out longer. Ontario, for example, was dry until 1927. Bootleggers, or rum runners, took advantage of the ban and transported liquor and moonshine from Canada to the U.S. and across state lines to a very thirsty public.

But bootleggers soon found themselves having to outrun federal authorities and local police on twisty back roads. To elude the authorities, bootleggers began to soup up their automobiles. They took cars that looked ordinary on the outside, so as not to arouse any suspicion, then had moonshine mechanics modify the engines for much greater speeds. The best quality tires were installed that could take the abuse of gravel roads. The back seats were removed so the car could be loaded with as many cases of liquor as possible. Heavy-duty suspension was added to carry the weight of all that hooch.

The cars were also tricked out with special features that sound like they come right out of a James Bond movie, complete with devices that, with the press of a button, would release smoke screens, oil slicks, or bucket loads of tacks to puncture police tires. These high-performance cars required high-performance driving, so bootleggers became highly skilled racers. They could maneuver along single-lane dirt roads at high speeds and execute daring 180-degree hairpin turns. Many of those car chases were done in the dark, with their headlights off.

Even after Prohibition ended in 1933, bootleggers continued their business because they wanted to avoid hefty federal alcohol taxes and regulations. When they weren't outrunning the authorities, these bootleggers would demonstrate their driving skills at local fairgrounds and racetracks. Soon, moonshiners discovered that hundreds of people, sometimes thousands, would pay to watch them race their whiskey cars.

By the late 30s, stock car races were attracting over 20,000 fans. After the Second World War, a mechanic named Bill France began to recruit bootleggers to compete in organized races. Then, in 1948, he called a meeting in Daytona Beach, Florida between drivers, mechanics, and owners to agree to a list of standardized rules. From that, the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing was formed, or NASCAR for short. The first official race

was held two months later. It would become one of America's most popular spectator sports and turned into a multi-billion dollar industry. There is a NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, North Carolina,

and in it, you'll find a bootlegging exhibit and an authentic moonshine still built by one of the original bootleg drivers. Because NASCAR wasn't born out of a desire to race, it was born out of a need to outrace the police.

Which reminds me of another multi-billion dollar company that had to change its origin story. eBay has a well-known origin story. Founder Pierre Omidyar created the site in 1995. He originally called it AuctionWeb. The reason Pierre Omidyar created his online marketplace was to help his fiancée. She was having trouble collecting and trading PEZ dispensers. It was her hobby. So Amityar sat down in his living room to write the computer code

for a web-based auction site where she could connect with other PEZ collectors. That site turned into AuctionWeb, AuctionWeb turned into eBay, and the rest is Internet history. Except, that's not exactly the story. As it turns out, that eBay origin story is a myth. In 1997, eBay's PR firm decided to send Pierre Omidyar out on a press junket. While eBay was known to its small, passionate user base, it was virtually unknown to the world at large.

It needed media coverage to attract more users, and more users would eventually allow eBay to go public. Omidyar prepared himself for some tough questions. But once he got in front of the press, there were hardly any questions at all. The press didn't know what to ask. The concept of an online auction site was too new. The reaction was mostly skepticism with a dab of horror

at the thought that strangers would do business with strangers over the Internet. The PR company tried to drum up interest by explaining the novelty of online auctions and the unusual self-policing policy of the eBay community. In the middle of the dot-com bubble, nobody thought that was newsworthy. Television networks canceled their meetings with Omidyar, and because eBay was still a private company at that point, analysts weren't following it. Needless to say, the press tour wasn't going well. One day, a PR executive who worked for eBay was feeling particularly discouraged while visiting Pierre Omidyar's

fiancée, Pam Wesley. Sometime over the course of their conversation, Wesley mentioned that since moving to Silicon Valley with Omidyar, she was having trouble finding people interested in her hobby of collecting and trading PEZ dispensers. That's when a light went off in the mind of the PR exec. At the very next press conference, the media was told that Omidyar had originally invented eBay to help his girlfriend trade

PEZ dispensers. It was a fun and romantic story and the press ate it up. eBay started getting big media attention and began to experience explosive growth. Nobody wanted to hear that Omidyar was a 30-year-old genius who set out to invent a perfect online marketplace. They wanted to hear that he did it for his fiancée.

Today, Pierre Omidyar is a billionaire. eBay has 147 million active buyers, a market cap of $32.5 billion, and it's come a long way from its imaginary Pez dispenser, Roots. Imagery plays a big role in advertising. When ad man David Ogilvie wrote his first TV commercial for Pepperidge Farm Bread, a colleague said the ad was good, but it lacked imagery. That night, Ogilvie had a dream of two white horses pulling a baker's delivery wagon along a country lane. 27 years later, that horse-drawn wagon was still gracing Pepperidge Farm commercials. That imagery underscored the message that Pepperidge Farm baked bread the way it used to be made.

The tagline was, Pepperidge Farm Remembers. Coors uses imagery of the Rocky Mountains. Chanel uses dreamlike imagery of romance. Nike uses the imagery of champions. Nobody buys Nike sneakers for the advanced inner sole cushioning technology. The truth is, more often than not, we buy a product's imagery over the product itself. In Hidden Valley, freshness is a way of life. That's why our ranch dressing calls to mind herbs you cut yourself and a creamy goodness only moments old. Original Ranch from Hidden Valley, where freshness is a way of life. Hidden Valley Ranch Salad Dressing was the first and is the most popular ranch dressing in the category.

The imagery used in its commercials is always green valleys, content cows, and a simple way of life. The bottle label shows blue skies and crops planted in perfect green rows that stretch as far as the eye can see. Wonderful place, Hidden Valley. Just what you'd expect for the home of Hidden Valley Ranch salad dressing. Folks here are proud of our original ranch recipe, the secrets in the special blend of herbs and spices,

and everyone loves that creamy homemade taste. Hidden Valley Ranch, how could anything so fresh and delicious come from anywhere else? True, not everyone can live in Hidden Valley, but you sure can get a taste of it. Hidden Valley Ranch. Yep, not everyone can live in Hidden Valley because that Hidden Valley never really existed.

The ranch dressing was created by a plumber named Steve Henson. Henson did contract work for Alaskan oil companies. He was also the cook for the crew. He realized quickly that he had to get creative with his meal preparation to keep the men happy. One of the ways he did that was to create a salad dressing. He originally was trying to come up with a low-calorie alternative to blue cheese. According to someone who worked with Henson, his special recipe was buttermilk, Miracle Whip, some parsley, thyme, and dill, chopped onion, a pinch of garlic, and a shot of black pepper. The secret ingredient was an off-the-shelf MSG flavor enhancer.

Henson had a dream to move to California and buy a ranch. So he eventually did. What he purchased there was a motel on some acreage near Santa Barbara in 1954. It wasn't a ranch per se, there were no animals or no crops, and it wasn't much of a motel. But it was nestled in the mountains in Southern California, so he named it Hidden Valley Ranch. While the motel-slash-ranch struggled,

there was one thing the occasional guests did like, and that was Steve Henson's salad dressing. They would take it home in mason jars. So Henson started a mail-order company selling dry packets of what he called his Hidden Valley Ranch seasoning mix. Soon, he was mailing his dressing all across the nation. He hired employees and expanded. It became a booming business in the 60s and early 70s, so much so that Henson eventually sold his ranch dressing to the Clorox Company for $8 million. That was big cash in 1972. Coming to the Valley was a good deal for Clorox. Today, Hidden Valley Ranch Salad Dressing pulls in annual revenues over $450 million. It is preferred by 40% of the salad dressing market.

Its nearest competitor, Italian, comes in at 10%. It is not just a salad dressing. It's also a dip for french fries, carrots, chicken wings, and chips. It's even drizzled over pizza. Some superfans even bathe in it. Don't ask. Clorox claims that Hidden Valley now outsells ketchup. The origin story in the commercials didn't really exist.

There were no crops, no glistening vegetable fields, and no contented cows. It was simply the creation of a plumber from Alaska in a failed motel who happened to create a delicious salad dressing recipe with a made-up name.

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So no matter your era, make it your best with Peloton. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca The word Lamborghini probably conjures up a very specific image in your mind. It is one of the world's most famous supercars, born of Italian craftsmanship and a love of speed. But the true origin of the supercar began with a tractor part. Ferruccio Lamborghini made a fortune manufacturing tractors. He served in the Italian Air Force Mechanics Corps and was gifted at fixing engines.

After the war in 1945, he salvaged army surplus left behind by the Allied forces and began building tractors in his small garage. Soon, the demand for his powerful Lamborghini tractors became so great, he opened up a factory and became one of the largest agricultural equipment manufacturers in Italy. That success led to a second company manufacturing heating units and air conditioning systems. Ferruccio Lamborghini became one of the wealthiest men

in the country. Mr. Lamborghini could afford anything he wanted, and one of his passions was cars. He owned a Jag, a Maserati, a top-end Mercedes, and two Ferraris, a white one for him and a black one for his wife. But the Ferrari's clutches kept giving him trouble and needed constant repair at the Ferrari factory. The problem kept recurring, so Lamborghini had his own tractor mechanics take a look at it.

As it turns out, Ferrari was using the same clutch component as he used in his tractors. Lamborghini was outraged. He paid 10 lira for his tractor clutches, yet Ferrari charged him 1,000 lira for the same part. And Lamborghini was appalled that beautiful Ferraris were actually built with tractor parts. With that discovery, he raced to Ferrari's head office and demanded to speak to founder Enzo Ferrari himself. When he launched his complaint, Enzo Ferrari yelled back at Lamborghini, saying the problem

wasn't the car, it was the driver. He told Lamborghini to go back to his tractors and leave him alone. That insult inspired Ferruccio Lamborghini to build his own high-end sports car. He built a factory, hired away some of Ferrari's mechanics and engineers, and designed a luxurious high-speed car that could reach speeds of 240 km per hour or 150 miles per hour.

The first model rolled out of his factory in 1963 and was christened the Lamborghini 350 GT. Lamborghini chose his Zodiac sign, Taurus the Bull, as the logo for his new car. That day, a fierce rivalry between Ferrari and Lamborghini began that would last for decades. And that is the origin story of Lamborghinis. It was a supercar born of a 10-Lira tractor part and an insult. Origin stories are a vital element of successful brands. The driving purpose of a company can be found in its origin story,

and that story informs all the subsequent marketing. There is a reason why origin stories are so important in the superhero world, because the origin story lifts a character to legend. As Batman said, As a man I'm flesh and blood, I can be ignored, but as a symbol I can be everlasting. That's why origin stories are so powerful. They can be surprising, conveniently altered, or completely made up.

Coca-Cola was created to help with a morphine addiction. NASCAR was born out of a need to outrun the authorities. eBay's origin story didn't interest anybody, so a more memorable one was pulled out of a Pez dispenser. Hidden Valley Ranch salad dressing was a delicious product that needed a plumber-free backstory. And the real story behind the legendary Lamborghini was rooted in a clutch and an insult.

Sometimes a true origin story is awe-inspiring. Sometimes it can be surprising. And sometimes an origin story is more creative than the product itself. 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, Jeff Devine.

Research, Abby Forsythe. Theme music by Ari Posner and Ian Lefevre. If you enjoyed this episode, you might also like Words Invented by Marketers, Season 5, Episode 6. You'll find it in our archives

wherever you listen to podcasts. If you'd like to be the first to know the latest under the influence news, get insider peeks at upcoming episodes and events, subscribe to our newsletter at apostrophepodcasts.ca. See you next week. Fun fact. The entire town of Beaufort, Wyoming was sold on eBay for $900,000. The auction took 11 minutes. In case nobody's told you, weight loss goes beyond the old just eat less and move more narrative. And that's where Felix comes in.

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your goals. Start your visit today at felix.ca. That's F-E-L-I-X dot C-A. 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 Thank you.