Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly - S7E15 - Hey Vern! When Ads Go Hollywood

Episode Date: April 12, 2018

This week, we look at commercials that made the unlikely leap…to Hollywood. Some became big hit movies, others inspired popular songs. One even became a TV series that was voted one of the worst sitcoms of all time. But that’s what can happen when an ad hitchhikes to Hollywood. 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. From the Under the Influence digital box set, this episode is from Season 7, 2018. Your teeth look whiter than no nose. 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 When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, Harold Russell rushed to the nearest recruiting office.

He trained to be a paratrooper specializing in demolitions. While demonstrating explosives to young recruits, a defective fuse detonated some TNT he was holding. Harold Russell lost both his hands that day. Doctors offered him a choice of prosthetic devices, plastic hands or steel hooks. He chose the hooks. Russell became so skilled at using those hooks,

he made a training film to help other soldiers who had lost their limbs. This was the day I lost both my hands. On this June day in 1944, someone else's fingers were writing down my words in my diary. Meanwhile, Hollywood director William Wyler, himself a disabled war veteran, was casting a film about three soldiers who return home from the war, trying to adjust to life back in their small hometown. He happened to see Harold Russell in that training film,

and was so moved by his honesty and realism, he made the daring choice to cast Russell in his 1946 movie, The Best Years of Our Lives. Harold Russell, who was born in North Sydney, Nova Scotia, was not an actor. In fact, he had never acted a day in his life. Yet Wyler was so taken with Russell, he had the screenplay rewritten to incorporate a character who had lost both hands

in the war. This is when I know I'm helpless. My hands are down there on the bed. I can't put them on again without calling to somebody for help.

I can't smoke a cigarette or read a book. That door should blow shut. I can't open it and get out of this room. When the Academy Awards rolled around that year, the Best Years of Our Lives was nominated for eight Oscars, winning seven, including Best Picture.

But the most memorable moment of the night belonged to Harold Russell. The Academy decided to give him an honorary Oscar for, quote, bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans through his appearance. The reason the Academy gave Russell the honorary Oscar was because they felt, as a non-actor, he was highly unlikely to win Best Supporting Actor. But they were wrong. When the envelope was opened, the Best Supporting Actor trophy went to Harold Russell, making him the only person in history to win two Oscars for the same role

in the same Oscar ceremony. Russell wasn't cast in anything else for almost 40 years. Decades later, he would sell one of his Oscars to pay for his wife's medical bills. But in spite of it all, Harold Russell holds down one of the most notable places in Hollywood trivia. He was one of the most unlikely and biggest Oscar winners of all time. The world of marketing has had some unlikely winners in Hollywood. Every once in a great while, a commercial becomes so popular that studios take notice.

Some of those commercials have turned into television shows, inspired popular songs and even became big hit movies. And one ad campaign inspired a TV sitcom that was voted one of the worst of all time. But that's what happens when ads go Hollywood. You're under the influence. In 1979, Coca-Cola came out with one of the most beloved Super Bowl ads of all time. It showed legendary Pittsburgh Steeler Mean Joe Green

limping to the locker room after a tough game when a starstruck boy offers him his bottle of Coke. Mr. Green? Yeah? You need any help? Mm-mm. Want my Coke? No, no.

Really? You can have it. Then the huge football player tosses his jersey to the kid. By the way, Green struggled with delivering that classic line. He had guzzled 18 bottles of Coke during the shoot, and burps kept getting in the way. And they were big 16-ounce Coke bottles because his large hands made the regular bottle look too small. The Super Bowl ad was so successful with viewers, NBC commissioned a 1981 TV movie based on the commercial, called The Stealer and the Pittsburgh Kid. It told the story of a young boy who was temporarily adopted by mean Joe Green and his team.

The players then become inspired by the boy's love of football. Green, of course, played himself, and the boy was played by Henry Thomas, who just one year later would go on to play Elliot in E.T. An ad that became a made-for-TV movie that definitely made Coke smile. In 2004, Geico aired a 15-second commercial saying that its website was so easy to use, a caveman could do it. In the ad, when the spokesperson utters that line, we see a caveman off-camera who is part of the film crew.

He's offended and stomps off the set. It's so easy to use, geico.com, a caveman could do it. What? Not cool. I did not know you were there. It's so easy to use geico.com, a caveman could do it. What? Oh, no. Not cool. I did not know you were there. I could, no, I could change it. The commercial was a hit.

So Geico came out with a series of funny ads starring two cultured cavemen in the 21st century always being offended at the Geico slogan. How could it be offensive if it's true? Okay, first of all, I'm not 100% in love with your tone right now. Tone aside, historically, you guys have struggled to adapt. Yeah, right. Walking upright, discovering fire, inventing the wheel, laying the foundation for all mankind.

You're right. Good point. Sorry we couldn't get that to you sooner. The ad agency behind the idea believed that, quote, laughter was almost as universal as a lack of interest in car insurance. By 2008, the cavemen were voted best advertising mascots of the year. When a fake trailer surfaced on YouTube for a caveman movie, the ad agency got an idea to pitch a caveman sitcom to Hollywood and received an enthusiastic response from ABC. The script focused on three cavemen who were repeatedly humiliated by Geico's tagline.

It would be called Cavemen. But the resulting sitcom didn't sit right with viewers. To many, it came off as blatant commercialism, and the reviews were overwhelmingly bad. After just six episodes, Caveman was cancelled. Today, you can find it on most worst sitcoms ever made lists.

Car insurance? So easy a caveman can do it. Turning an ad campaign into a successful sitcom? Not so much. Hey, remember this guy? You know, Vern, the so-called heat you get from that

heat pump of yours is not very hot. I mean, it's definitely drafty and kind of lukewarm, know what I mean? That character was named Ernest P. Worrell. The P, by the way, stood for power tools. Ernest was created as an advertising mascot that eventually inspired a whole series of movies. But let's begin at the beginning.

The character of Ernest P. Worrell was created in the boardroom of a Nashville advertising agency called Cardin and Cherry. Partner John Cherry was trying to think of a way to promote an aging amusement park that was under renovation in Kentucky. He needed an idea to promote the amusement park without showing the amusement park. That's when he dreamt up Ernest P. Worrell, a lovable, know-it-all character who would tell his neighbor Vern, who he would never see, all about the park.

Cherry would keep the camera tight on Ernest's face so he didn't have to show the roller coasters. And Ernest would talk directly to the camera. But first, he needed to find just the right actor to play Ernest. Jim Varney was an actor from Kentucky who dreamed of working in live theater. He moved to New York and did some off-off-Broadway plays, but didn't earn much money. Then he headed out to Hollywood looking for more work.

When times were lean, he drove a truck. When times were good, he'd land small roles in 70s sitcoms like Alice and Fernwood Tonight. One day, he auditioned for a role in a car dealer commercial in Nashville, Tennessee. That's when he met the man who wrote the commercial, John Cherry. They hit it off, and Cherry loved Jim Varney's talent. So when he needed an actor to play Ernest P. Worrell, he remembered Varney.

While the amusement park commercial was a hit, the amusement park itself eventually folded. But John Cherry kept the Varney commercial on a reel when courting clients. One day, a prospective client called Purity Dairy asked Cherry if he could revive the Ernest character for their commercials. One of those first ads showed Ernest trapped inside a grocery store cooler. Vernon! Vernon! Hey, Vernon! One of those first ads showed Ernest trapped inside a grocery store cooler. Little did they know it would be the start of a very lucrative relationship between John Cherry and Jim Varney. Soon the line, Hey Vern, became a pop culture catchphrase, and the structure of the commercials became something John Cherry could sell to multiple clients.

His thinking was this. Cherry could approach local advertisers to create Hayvern commercials for their products. It was a concept Cherry could sell to different companies market to market right across the country. So, somebody in North Carolina wouldn't see Ernest pitching milk in New Jersey, and somebody in New Jersey wouldn't see Ernest pitching a car dealer in North Carolina. That allowed Varney and Cherry to film commercials

for everything from convenience stores to pizza parlors to banks. The commercials caught on big time with the public, and many would actually call their local television stations asking when the next Hayvern commercial was going to air. That made Cherry's pitch to advertisers very seductive. Because if the public wanted to watch a commercial, chances are they would remember the product. Hey Vern, have you ever noticed when you talk to a stock boy you say, Hey, where's them navy beans? He don't know. Or where's the bologna? He don't know.

But when you say, Hey stock boy, where's that pine state scooped to bill ice cream? He'll say, Well it's right over there sir and six delicious flavors. Always fresh, always guaranteed for supreme taste. Thanks for shopping with us. One day, Varney made an appearance as Ernest P. Worrell in the Indianapolis 500 parade. Even though his commercials weren't playing in that market, all the fans stood to cheer Varney,

yelling out, Hey, Vern. Two Disney executives happened to be in the crowd that day and couldn't believe what they were witnessing. Later, when they did their research, they discovered Jim Varney already had a 20,000-member fan club. Not long after, Disney made a four-picture deal with Cherry and Varney. The first movie was Ernest Goes to Camp in 1987. Then, Ernest Saves Christmas.

Then came a 13-episode Saturday morning TV series aimed at kids called Hey Vern, It's Ernest, followed by seven more feature films. All told, the Ernest movies would generate over $100 million at the box office. It was a huge success, until Jim Varney passed away from lung cancer at the age of 50 in the year 2000. But he left behind a legacy of over 4,000 hilarious commercials. And those commercials led to nine motion pictures and a children's TV series for which he won an Emmy.

And that's a pretty impressive body of work. Know what I mean? And we'll be right back. 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.

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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. 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 1992, Nike ran a Super Bowl commercial for their latest Air Jordan sneakers titled Hair Jordan. It featured Bugs Bunny playing basketball alongside a live-action, recently retired Michael Jordan.

Of course you know this means war. Air Jordan and Air Jordan. Of course you know this means war. Here, Jordan. Here. Here, Jordan. Who'd you expect? You're my friend. The ad was so successful, Nike made another the following year.

This time, it took place in outer space. The commercials were some of the first ads to tap the nostalgia of Looney Tunes. The animation appealed to kids, but Bugs tugged on the heartstrings of boomers. That gave Warner Bros. an idea. They wanted to turn the ads

into a major motion picture. The plot? When evil aliens threaten to kidnap the Looney Tunes gang, Bugs Bunny challenges them to a basketball game with the help of superstar

Michael Jordan. They called it Space Jam. Looney Tunes was the perfect pairing for Jordan because the cartoon characters could carry the comedy. But Nike had reservations about the film. It owned Jordan's apparel rights

and was concerned about his image. But one look at Space Jam's merchandising opportunities and Nike said, OK, we're doing it. Filming the movie was tedious work because of the mix of live action with animation,

and Michael Jordan often got bored. So to keep him happy, the studio built a basketball court near the set so he could play some ball between takes. Eventually, NBA stars like Reggie Miller and Magic Johnson stopped by to play. Then, in November 1996, Space Jam was released. The movie was a huge hit. To date, it has earned more than $4 billion.

Over 200 licensing deals were struck. Even the soundtrack to Space Jam became a hit. Space Jam not only sold a ton of Nike shoes, it also resurrected Looney Tunes and shot the cartoon character straight into hip-hop culture. And, as fate would have it, those pickup games Jordan played between takes would convince him

to mount a famous comeback with the Chicago Bulls, which would eventually lead to three more NBA championships. Twenty years later, Space Jam's iconic status is still rock solid. Jordan says the original Hair Jordan ad

was his kid's favorite commercial, not because Dad was in it, but because Bugs Bunny was in it. That's all, folks. That's my line. Back in 1939, department store Montgomery Ward in Chicago had a seasonal problem. The retailer had been purchasing coloring books

to give away to kids as free Christmas gifts, but it was becoming costly. The store wanted to create a Christmas booklet of their own to save money. So, it assigned the task to one of the store's ad writers, 34-year-old Robert May. Not long after, May's wife became terminally ill. Montgomery Ward wanted to lessen his workload and suggested that someone else write the Christmas story. But Robert May said he needed something to keep his mind off the sadness in his home.

As he wrote the story, he would test it out on his four-year-old daughter. He also based his story on his own experiences. He was small, slight, and shy as a kid and was often bullied. So, he created a story about a reindeer who was taunted

because he had a glowing red nose. But that nose ends up saving Christmas by guiding Santa's sleigh through the fog. May considered naming the reindeer Rolo, then Reginald, and even Romeo, but settled on Rudolph. When he presented the story to his Montgomery Ward bosses,

they had an immediate problem with it. Can you guess why? It was the red nose. His bosses were worried that a story featuring a red nose, an image associated with drinking and drunks, was inappropriate for a children's Christmas

story. So May had one of the store's illustrators draw up some sketches of a cute reindeer with a red nose. When management saw the pictures, they fell in love with Rudolph. With that, the story of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was printed up into a 32-page illustrated booklet and distributed to children as a free Christmas gift. But the booklet had a marketing purpose. Montgomery Ward's 620 store managers were told to only give the booklet out to children who were accompanied by a parent.

Because, quote, parents are the people you want to sell! Double exclamation mark. The booklet was positioned to staff as the perfect Christmas crowd bringer. And it was. The store gave away over 2 million copies of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in the first year alone. And over 6 million were distributed by the end of 1946. Because it was a protected trademark,

the commercial use of Rudolph required royalty payments, and the post-war demand for Rudolph licensing was overwhelming. But because Robert May had written the story as an employee of Montgomery Ward, he received no royalties. Deeply in debt due to his wife's terminal illness, May was struggling by 1947. That was when the department store did something most corporations would never, ever do. It turned the entire copyright over to May

to help alleviate his debt. With that, his financial future was secured. But Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer didn't become a true phenomenon until Rudolph became a song. Robert May's brother-in-law, Johnny Marks, was a composer. He developed the music and lyrics to a song based on May's story. Marks offered the song to Bing Crosby and Dinah Shore, but both singers turned it down. He then offered it to cowboy crooner Gene Autry.

He hated the song too, but his wife liked it, so Autry put it out as a B-side in 1949. That B-side would go on to become the second biggest selling Christmas song of all time, next to the Bingster's White Christmas. Then, in 1964, the story that began as a Christmas marketing promotion became a famous stop-motion animated television special. The script and the storyboards were developed in New York, but the actors recorded their roles in Toronto at the old RCA Studios at 225 Mutual Street.

The late Billy May Richards provided the voice of Rudolph, and Paul Soles played Hermie, the misfit elf. As a matter of fact, with the exception of narrator Burl Ives, all the roles were played by Canadians. Well, what do you want? You promised to walk me home. Aren't you going to laugh at my nose too? I think it's a handsome nose.

Much better than that silly false one you were wearing. It's terrible. It's different from everybody else's. But that's what makes it so grand. Robert May's little Christmas marketing idea, designed to drive tremendous traffic to Montgomery Ward, has stood the test of time. Its universal theme of finding strength in an assumed handicap touches hearts right around the world. The Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer animated TV program is now the longest-running Christmas special in history. 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. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. When a commercial makes that unlikely leap to Hollywood, it's a dream come true for advertisers. But that leap is so rare.

When the Mean Joe Green Super Bowl commercial made a huge impact on viewers in the late 70s, NBC saw an opportunity for big ratings and Coke saw an unexpected windfall. It was one of the first times in history that a 60-second ad inspired a movie. When Geico realized it had a funny premise on its hands, Hollywood was eager to roll the dice.

But the advertising was too effective. The cavemen were so associated with Geico, viewers felt they were watching a half-hour commercial for the insurance company. The opposite happened with Ernest P. Worrell. He was a very rare character in the world of advertising. As online magazine Mental Floss notes, Ernest was a mascot without a permanent corporate home.

With over 4,000 commercials, he was never associated with one product. Paired with the strategy of only doing local commercials, he suffered no national wear-out. Space Jam was simply a slam dunk. It was a bouquet of successes. It sold millions of Nike products, revived Looney Tunes, created a blockbuster feature film that made billions, and also happened to help relaunch Michael

Jordan's career. But maybe the most interesting story today is Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Most people don't know Rudolph was created as a marketing idea. Yet, it transcended its department store origins to find a permanent place in our hearts. That's what can happen when an ad hitchhikes to Hollywood. It blurs the line between entertainment and marketing. And when people see marketing as entertainment, the filters go down and the spending goes up. When you're under the influence. I'm Terry O'Reilly. Zip, zip, zip, zip Under the Influence was recorded in the Terror Stream.

Producer, Debbie O'Reilly. Sound Engineer, Keith Ullman. Theme music by Ari Posner and Ian Lefevre. Research, Abby Forsythe. Coriter Sidney O'Reilly Follow me on Twitter and Instagram at Terry O'Influence See you next week. This episode brought to you by Ice Cold Coca-Cola

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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 health care 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 onepeloton.ca.