Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly - S7E01 - Put It Between Your Knees and Squeeze: Marketing A Fad

Episode Date: January 5, 2018

This week, we explore how some of the craziest fads are marketed. We'll look at how one student's school project changed the way we sleep, why a single toy made Tyco the subject of bomb threats and how a popular piece of jewellery was inspired...by doctors.From the Thighmaster to the Pet Rock, we'll break down what makes fads so absolutely irresistible.  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. From the Under the Influence digital box set, this episode is from Season 7, 2018. You're under the influence with Terry O'Reilly. One day in 1955, a tune popped into the head of Warner Thomas.

He was an accordion player who entertained at Swiss ski resorts. Over the next few years, Thomas noodled and refined his tune. It had a fun, novelty flavor. He even created a quirky dance to go along with it, based on the body movements of skiers. Thomas felt the way people flapped their arms and waddled their legs while skiing down a hill reminded him of a duck. He called it the duck dance.

Twenty years later, a European music producer heard Warner Thomas play his duck dance song at a hotel in Switzerland. The producer recorded the song with a synthesizer band and renamed the tune Cheep Cheep to give it a bird-like sound. That little ditty sold a million records in Europe. A Dutch band named Die Elektronica released another version, which they called Dance Little Bird.

In concert, the band would do Werner Thomas' Duck Dance. In 1981, a German band decided to play Dance Little Bird at an Oktoberfest in Tulsa, Oklahoma. They wanted to teach the audience the duck dance and asked for a duck costume as a visual aid.

The event organizer scoured the city for a duck outfit, but came up empty-handed. A local TV station offered to loan them a chicken suit. And that's when the crowd learned the chicken dance. One day in 1994, an American record company called Werner Thomas in Europe to ask if they could license his chicken dance song.

Thomas said he didn't own anything called the chicken dance song. Yes, you do, said the record company, and played him the tune over the phone. That's when Thomas realized his duck dance had become the chicken dance in America. From that moment on, it exploded. The chicken dance became a huge fad. People did the wacky dance at weddings, bar mitzvahs, and parties everywhere. It was a bona fide sensation. And, like all fads, it blazed across the sky for a brief, shining moment. The world of marketing has seen its share of sensational fads. And, like all fads, they blaze across the sky for a brief shining moment.

Some of those fads manage to make a dent in popular culture. On paper, they seem almost preposterous. But in the hands of skilled marketers, these crazy ideas become cultural phenomenons. They make us laugh, they tone us up, they help us sleep, and they make us shake our heads that we ever bought them. You're under the influence. Gary Doll was an ad man. He made a modest living writing commercials at a small advertising agency in Los Gatos, California. One night at a bar, he was having drinks with a few friends.

When the subject got around to pets, everyone started complaining about how much work they were. While they loved their animals, they didn't love the feeding, the walking, and the cleaning up. That's when Gary Doll announced his pet required no care whatsoever. When asked what he had, Dahl replied, A pet rock. Everyone laughed hysterically.

On the way home that night, he wondered if he was on to something. So, he bought a load of smooth Mexican beach stones from a building supply store for a penny apiece. But nobody's going to buy a lonely stone as a pet. That's when Gary Dahl's marketing skills kicked in. First, he created a cardboard carrying case with air holes. Then he filled the case with wood shavings. But the real genius was the care and training manual Dahl wrote

that turned a simple rock into a fad of epic proportions. The manual suggested tricks you could teach your pet rock, like stay, sit, and play dead. You could teach your pet rock to roll over, which the manual said was best practiced on a hill. You could even train your pet rock to roll over, which, the manual said, was best practiced on a hill. You could even train your pet rock to attack on command. When a bully bothered you, the manual said to yell the word attack, then throw the rock.

When the pet rock was finally ready, Gary Dahl sent out a press release. The media aided up. Newspapers did hundreds of stories. Newsweek did a half-page article. It landed Dahl not one, but two guest appearances on The Tonight Show. People magazine said the Pet Rock was, quote, an idea whose moment is regrettably here. The $3.95 pet rock hit the market just in time for the 1975 Christmas shopping season. It was an instant smash.

Soon, Dahl was selling 100,000 pet rocks a day. Stores like Bloomingdale's and Neiman Marcus couldn't keep them on the shelves. By Christmas Day, 1.5 million Pet Rocks had been sold, generating over $6 million in revenue in just a few months, or roughly $28 million in today's dollars. Gary Dahl traded in his Honda for a Mercedes. Pet Rocks sales peaked at Christmas in 1975 and petered out in early 1976.

It was the classic definition of a marketing fad. It burned brightly for a limited time only. When Gary Dahl passed away in 2015, his New York Times obituary summed it up best, calling the Pet Rock, quote, one of the most ridiculously successful marketing schemes ever. It certainly was. And it wouldn't be the last.

American author Tom Wolfe famously dubbed the 70s the meade to reflect the country's growing preoccupation with the self. And the most successful products of that era reflected that self-absorption, which led to the birth of the mood ring. One day, a jewelry designer named Marvin Wernick saw a doctor use thermotropic tape on a child's forehead to take her temperature. The tape changed color when exposed to body heat. That gave him an idea. Wernick filled a glass shell with thermotropic liquid crystals

and attached it to a ring. When placed on a finger, the crystals would change color. He figured, theoretically, that body temperatures shift with changes in mood. Therefore, the ring changed color to reflect its wearer's emotions. But Wernick had no idea how to market his invention. Then, along came a

New York ad man named Joshua Reynolds. He immediately saw the potential of the rings and christened them Portable Biofeedback Aids. Catchy. Thankfully, he changed his mind and called them Mood Rings instead.

Reynolds also had a counterintuitive marketing strategy in mind. He positioned the rings as high-priced jewelry and convinced luxury department store Bonwit Teller to carry them. The rings weren't plastic. They were gold and silver

and retailed for up to $250, the equivalent of $1,000 in today's money. Celebrity fans included Safiya Loren, Barbra Streisand, and Muhammad Ali. Reynolds sold over a million dollars worth of mood rings

in just three months. Later, more affordable versions of the jewelry were created for the masses, and that's when they became popular in my high school. You are about to witness the most amazing man-made jewelry ever created, the original multicolor mood ring. This is the ring that senses your deepest

feelings. Scientifically developed, the incredible chroma stone senses thermal changes deep within your body, reflects all your mood changes in a fascinating kaleidoscope of color, responding to your deepest secrets, your most hidden emotions. The mood ring was the classic fad, a sensation that went as swiftly as it came. But in that brief time, it left a lasting mark on popular culture. And it seems the fad might be making a comeback. You can find them in a few trendy jewelry shops across North America, in case the mood strikes you.

Like Gary Dahl and Joshua Reynolds, Joseph P. Dot was an ad man. He had worked at a Chicago advertising firm for a few years, then decided to move to San Francisco to open up his own shop. P. Dot was always on the hunt for interesting products to advertise. One day, he met two Canadians who had invented a device that could turn household appliances on just by clapping your hands. P-Dot liked the idea because it checked three boxes he always looked for in a product. It was convenient, it was simple, and it was patentable. So he licensed the product from the inventors. Next, he needed a name. Because it worked when you clapped your hands twice, he suggested the clapper. His staff said it sounded like a venereal

disease, but P.Dot liked the name. So in 1983, he started manufacturing the clapper and advertising it. The only problem was the clapper didn't work. When people connected it to their television sets and clapped to turn it on,

the sets exploded. But P-Dot refused to give up on the clap-activated device and hired some engineers to fine-tune the mechanism. Two years later, a redesigned clapper hit the market, along with an infamous TV commercial. Clap on, clap off.

Clap on, clap off. The jingle stuck in your mind, and the rest was fad history. Even though the redesigned clpper had a few other issues, like when you applauded a great play while watching a hockey game and the TV would turn off, the Clapper still enjoyed a heyday during the 80s and early 90s. And many, many happy customers clapped their bedside lights off every night while floating on another fad.

We'll be right back to our show. If you're enjoying this episode, why not dip into our archives, available wherever you download your pods. Go to terryoreilly.ca for a master episode list. In the late 60s, 24-year-old design student Charlie Hall was given a school assignment to improve human comfort. So he poured cornstarch gel into a vinyl bag and climbed on top.

Surprisingly, Hall found it to be amazingly comfortable. That is, until the bag began to smell. So he tried filling it with jello instead. Still wasn't right. Hall then decided to it with jello instead. Still wasn't right. Paul then decided to swap the jello for water. Because it weighed 300 pounds, it was too

heavy to be a chair. So Charlie decided his water-filled vinyl bag would become a waterbed. Paul added temperature control to the water and presented his waterbed to the class. They were fascinated by it. He got an A.

With that success, he secured a patent and set up a studio to handcraft the beds. It was another example of the right product at exactly the right time. After all, it was the sexual revolution. Hall's waterbeds were an instant hit. Mattress companies ran slogans like, Two things are better on a waterbed.

One of them is sleep. Celebrities loved waterbeds. Hugh Hefner owned several. One was covered entirely in Tasmanian possum hair. I have the same one. At one point, over 20% of North Americans owned a waterbed. Within a few years, competitors began offering cheaper knockoffs that became notorious for leaks and deflations.

And most people who already owned a waterbed left them behind when they moved. The draining or lifting was too much of a hassle. Few people bought a waterbed twice. But the waterbed did create a ripple in history. It challenged the popular theory that the firmer the mattress, the better, and paved the way for new technology like memory foam, gel, and latex mattresses. Like all fads, the waterbed eventually lost its cool factor and floated into the history books. As one writer said, what was once James Bond was now Austin Powers. Ron Dubrin was walking through the park one day when he noticed young children tickling each other.

He remembered how much fun tickling was. The gradual build-up of laughter, he thought, would make a great toy. So Dubrin tried to create a toy chimp that tickled you, but it wasn't feasible. So instead he made a prototype of Tickles the Chimp that laughed when you tickled it. He was turned down by 12 different

toy companies, until Dubrin scored a meeting with Stan Clutton, VP of Tyco's preschool division. Clutton's immediate reaction was, this would be great if it was Elmo. Around the mid-90s, Elmo was becoming more and more popular on Sesame Street, and he was known for his laugh.

The concept was brilliant. Tickle Elmo once and he would laugh. Tickle him again and he would laugh. Tickle him again and he'd laugh harder. Tickle him a third time and he'd go hysterical. They called it Tickle Me Elmo.

So Dubrin licensed his idea to Tycho in return for royalties. Next, Tycho brought in their advertising agency, who stared at the laughing character in silence, then asked, Can you make it shake like Santa's belly? They were thinking ahead to the television commercials.

TV ads are about action. The toy would have to move to be a hit on screen. So Tycho went to great expense to add vibration to Elmo's laughing. That simple suggestion would change toy history. But Sesame Street wasn't convinced. They worried Elmo's shaking

would be associated with seizures. So Tycho adjusted their design so Elmo would stop shaking the minute he stopped giggling. And to assure any concerned parents, Tyco made another smart marketing decision. They figured out a way

to let consumers test Tickle Me Elmo by creating state-of-the-art packaging that allowed customers to tickle Elmo right in the store. It meant Elmo had to come with batteries already installed. But that shaking belly won over skeptical parents and thrilled children. When Tickle Me Elmo hit the shelves, it was pricey at $29.95.

But it got a thumbs up from reviewers like Katie Couric and Brian Gumbel on the Today Show. Elmo is, I think, adorable. Isn't he really cute? Yeah, I love his voice. Go ahead. Dad tickles. With that, Tickle Me Elmo became the must-have Christmas toy of 1996 and sold out across the country in just two hours. Who's giving everybody the giggles?

It's Tickle Me Elmo. When your child tickles him, he talks, laughs, and his whole body shakes. Tyco's advertising agency found themselves facing a marketing problem most agencies only dream of. They had to pull their television campaign off the air because the product was doing too well. That was the irony. They made Elmo's tummy shake to make for great TV, but in the end it didn't need television advertising at all. During that Christmas season, fights over the last Elmo's broke out in toy stores.

Desperate parents chased delivery trucks down the street. People were reselling them for thousands of dollars. Tyco even got bomb threats. The media accused the toy company of planning the shortage to generate publicity. But it wasn't true. Tyco simply couldn't keep up. Like all fads, Tickle Me Elmo created a brief shopping mania. It was also named one of the most popular toys of the 20th century

before it was even one year old. But it's the original creator Ron Dubrin who had the last laugh when those hefty royalty checks came pouring in. New year, new me. Season is here and honestly, we're already over it. Enter Felix, the healthcare 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 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 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. BetMGM is an official sports betting partner of the National Hockey League and has your back all season long. From puck drop to the final shot, you're always taken care of with the sportsbook Born in Vegas. That's a feeling you can only get with BetMGM. And no matter your team, your favorite skater, or your style, there's something every NHL fan is going to love about BetMGM.

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If you have any questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Back in 1990, a man named Joshua Reynolds spotted an odd piece of workout equipment at a spa. By the way, does his name sound familiar? It should. Joshua Reynolds was the man behind the mood ring.

The piece of equipment Reynolds spotted was V-shaped with a big spring in the middle. When you pushed the twin handles together, the spring provided resistance. What intrigued Reynolds was the fact it was portable. He knew gyms and personal trainers were expensive and intimidating, but that was the marketing potential. If he could offer people a portable piece of exercise equipment that was effective and relatively painless, he had a

winning product on his hands. Reynolds modified the original gizmo to make it more colorful. Then he christened it the V-Toner. Meanwhile, a marketing man named Peter Beeler heard that Reynolds was looking for a way to promote a new product. Beeler was a Canadian living in Los Angeles. Ronald Reagan had just deregulated the length of commercials, and Buehler had started a production company that specialized in a relatively new medium called infomercials. He went to see Reynolds, and Reynolds explained that the V-toner was a, quote, all-purpose gym in a bag, but it wasn't selling. Buehler liked what he saw and offered to license the rights from Reynolds in return for royalties.

Reynolds said sure. And here's where Peter Beeler's marketing smarts kicked in. First, he felt women would be the most lucrative audience. He also felt the key marketing tactic lay in targeting a single body part that women would like to change about themselves. While using the V-toner at home, Buehler noticed it really worked the thighs when you squeezed its handles between your knees. That's when he made a momentous decision and renamed the product the Thighmaster. The next step was to find just the right spokesperson for the infomercials. He had shot a video with Suzanne Somers a few years earlier.

She was telegenic, funny, and had what Beeler called knockout legs. Summers was also in career limbo, as she had been recently fired from her hit sitcom Three's Company for demanding to be paid the same salary as co-star John Ritter and for wanting a share of the profits. Beeler went to see Summers and showed her the Thighmaster prototype. She tried it, loved it, and said to him, I'm going to make you so much money.

How right she would be. He then filmed a now-famous two-minute Thighmaster infomercial starring Suzanne Summers in 1991. Great legs. Thank you. How do you get them? I used to do aerobics till I dropped, then I found Thighmaster. Every single time you squeeze Thighmaster, you strengthen the tone right where you need it. So it's easy to squeeze, squeeze your way to shape the hips and thighs.

Buehler had a television-to-retail selling strategy. He ran the 1-800 infomercial for six weeks. Then, when demand was bursting, he put the product into stores across the nation. Suzanne Summers happened to have a new book out at the same time. So, when she was on talk shows, she would swing the conversation over to the Thighmaster. It was a sensation. In less than a year, Thighmaster generated over $100 million in revenue. Lines of Walmart trucks circled the Thighmaster factory fighting for space.

But like all fads, it ran its course and was all over in just 18 months. It was a cultural phenomenon while it lasted. The combination of Peter Buehler's marketing smarts, Suzanne Sommer's personality, and the Thighmaster made infomercial history, proving once again that three's company. Fads have always been an irresistible aspect of popular culture. Unlike most products that are made for the long haul,

fads only exist for one brief shining moment. And timing is everything. The waterbed was a sexy product in tune with the sexual revolution. The mood ring and pet rock were ideal self-indulgent gimmicks for the 70s me decade. The clapper was a piece of technology in the tech boom 80s. And the Thighmaster was the perfect product for the 90s fitness craze. You may have detected another theme today. That advertising people help create these products.

You might look at the Pet Rock and think it's so simple anyone could have thought of it. But not true. Gary Dahl was an ad man who understood the real genius of the Pet Rock was not in the stone, but in the writing of the hilarious Care

and Feeding Manual. Joseph P. Dot refused to give up on the clapper after its first spectacular failure. The advertising agency behind Tickle Me Elmo insisted that Elmo's belly shake, a small addition that made the toy utterly irresistible. And marketer Peter Buehler instinctively knew that his product would be more successful if it was aimed not at multiple muscle groups, but at a single body part.

When the V-toner became the Thighmaster, it made infomercial history. Chances are you purchased a mood ring back in the day, or slept on a waterbed, or maybe there's a Thighmaster lurking in your closet. Or maybe you just don't want to admit that fads once had you under the influence. I'm Terry O'Reilly. Under the Influence was recorded in the Airstream Mobile Recording Studio. Producer, Debbie O'Reilly.

Sound Engineer, Keith Ullman. Research, James Gangle. Co-Writer, Sidney O'Reilly. Theme music by Ari Posner and Ian Lefevre. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter at Terry O Influence. See you next week. This episode brought to you by Ch-Ch-Ch-Chia. Just put it between your knees

and squeeze. Hey, I like your style. I'd like your style even more if you were wearing an Under the Influence T-shirt. Just saying. You'll find them on our shop page at terryoreilly.ca slash shop.