Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly - S7E22 - Guinness Book of World Ad Records

Episode Date: May 31, 2018

This week, we look at the ad industry’s place in the Guinness Book of World Records. The aim of all advertising is to create selling ideas that are impossible to ignore. From the world’s largest coupon, to the most expensive commercial ever made, to the first ad visible from outer space, breaking a record can be a great marketing strategy. 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.

The Guinness Book of World Records has about 40,000 world records in its database they can only print about 4,000 in their book each year breaking a world record is not easy and setting one is a formidable achievement meet mr. ash Rita Furman he has set more than one world record in his lifetime as a matter of fact ash Rita has set six hundred and 628 world records since 1979. It is astonishing. He was the first to set 100 world records and currently holds more than 200 standing records.

Some of his world records are difficult, some are easy, and some are very unusual. He set a record for somersaulting continuously for 12 miles. He set a record for walking over 80 miles balancing a milk bottle on his head. And he set a record for opening the most beer bottles in a minute using a chainsaw. Ever since Ashrita Furman was a kid, he was fascinated with the Guinness Book of World Records. He was a self-confessed nerd in school, more bookish than athletic.

Then one day, he entered a 24-hour bike race and surprised himself by finishing third. That one accomplishment set him off on a life of accomplishments. When he's not breaking world records, the 63-year-old manages a health food store. One thing I noticed is that Ashreda is in really good shape. You'd have to be to break some of these records. For example, the very first record he ever broke was for doing 27,000 jumping jacks. He set a record by performing 9,628 sit-ups in one hour. And he set a world record for pogoing up all 1,899 steps in Toronto's CN Tower in under an hour.

Ashrita Furman also isn't afraid to tackle world records he knows nothing about. For example, he holds a record for yodeling for 27 straight hours. He had no idea how to yodel when he decided to try and break the existing record, so he got a book on yodeling and listened to yodeling tapes. The toughest part of setting that record was finding witnesses willing to listen to him for 27 hours. He once tried to break the record for continuous underwater juggling in a shark tank

and was doing fine until one of the sharks bumped into him and knocked a ball out of his hands. He has broken records on every continent. He hula-hooped

for the fastest mile in Australia and he did the fastest mile on a pogo stick in Antarctica. But he also holds the best record of all. Ashrida Furman holds the Guinness World Record for holding the most Guinness World Records.

Believe it or not, the advertising industry has a few entries in the Guinness Book of World Records. In its quest to bring as much attention as possible to brands, the ad biz has shattered a world record or two along the way. Sometimes it was for the longest commercial ever made. Sometimes it was for the most expensive commercial ever produced. And one Guinness record today held by a radio commercial is my favorite of all time. And, like Mr. Furman, the ad industry has set some quirky records, too. You're under the influence.

Every day of every month of every year, the advertising industry tries to attract attention to its clients' products. Attention is job one because you can't sell to someone who isn't listening. As my advertising hero Bill Bernbach once said, if your advertising isn't noticed, everything else is academic. So therefore, advertising agencies strive to make a lasting impression. One age-old way to make a brand stand out was to create advertising mascots. There have been a lot of advertising mascots over the years.

Think Tony the Tiger, Snap, Crackle & Pop, Charlie the Tuna, the Pillsbury Doughboy, and Ronald McDonald. Can you guess which one holds the world record for the longest-running advertising mascot in North America? I'll give you a hint. It's a cereal mascot. Answer? The Quaker Man for Quaker Oats. It was trademarked on September 4, 1877.

It's one of the few human mascots that has survived in a world mostly populated with critter mascots. You might naturally assume Quaker Oats was created by Quakers. You would be incorrect. Founder Henry Seymour just happened to be reading about Quakers in an encyclopedia one day, and he thought they sounded like nice people. He also felt the name Quaker stood for honesty, purity, and integrity, values he wanted associated with his new product. So, he applied to trademark a, quote,

man in Quaker garb. Early Quaker Oats commercials had the Quaker mascot utter their slogan. Quaker Oats. Nothing is better for thee than me. The Quaker man has changed a bit over time, starting life as a full figure, then evolving to the now familiar head and shoulders illustration on the cereal box.

Apparently, he is referred to as Larry inside the Quaker Corporation, which I find too funny. A runner-up in the oldest mascot category is the Michelin Man, created in Europe in 1898. The white tire mascot was inspired by an oddly stacked display of tires

the Michelin brothers saw one day and they thought it looked like a man. Back then, tires were white or light gray. They didn't become black until carbon was added to the tire process in 1912. The Michelin man actually has a name, Bibendum, from the Latin phrase Nunc est Bibendum,

which means, now is the time to drink, which is weirdly inappropriate for an automotive product. The longest-running real-life advertising character was created in 1967. His name? The Lonely Maytag Repairman. He was created by the Chicago-based Leo Burnett ad agency, the firm that created most of the mascots I spoke of earlier. The idea of a repairman that was never needed was such a powerful advertising idea,

Maytag could actually charge a premium price for their appliances. The Maytag Repairman is now in his fifth generation. Maytag Repairman number two was Gordon Jump, who many will remember from the sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati. I did many commercials with Gordon over the years, and he was a wonderful man. In this commercial, Gordon is playing the Maytag Repairman who is practicing how to answer a phone that never rings.

Maytag, can I help you? At Maytag, our repairmen make sure they're on top of their skills. Maytag's name repairs the game. Just in case, after all it has happened. Maytag headquarters. A Maytag does need a repair. Hello? No, dear. Won't be working late tonight.

Maytag. The dependability people. By the way, some of you may have recognized the announcer in that Maytag commercial. It was none other than Fred Gwynn, who played Herman Munster. There is actually a Guinness Book of World Records entry for the world's biggest coupon. It belongs to fast food company Jack in the Box. It was a coupon for a buy one burger, get the second one free offer. It measured 185 square meters, It was a coupon for a buy-one-burger-get-the-second-one-free offer.

It measured 185 square meters, or 80 feet long by 25 feet wide. Jack in the Box hung it from a building in downtown Los Angeles, and judging by the photo, it was eight stories tall. But here's the funny part. When the Guinness Book of World Records officials came to verify the gigantic coupon, they told Jack in the Box it wouldn't be valid for a world record unless the voucher was actually redeemed. Ha! That presented a bit of a problem. So the crowd that had gathered helped the restaurant carry the huge coupon

a few blocks to the nearest Jack in the Box restaurant. If you can imagine this, the coupon working its way down the streets of Los Angeles looked like a colossal parade float. This story gets even funnier. When they got to the nearest Jack in the Box,

the enormous coupon wouldn't fit through the door. There was only one option. The coupon had to be presented at the door. There was only one option. The coupon had to be presented at the restaurant's drive-thru window. Hilarious. So the crowd made its way to the drive-thru, the coupon was redeemed, and the world record was achieved. To thank everyone, the restaurant gave the crowd free hamburgers, and anyone who took a photo of the giant coupon

could redeem it at any Jack-in-the-box in the country. As I flipped through the Guinness Book of World Records, I noticed there is a world record for longest-running television commercial. The advertiser is Discount Tires. The commercial has been running in the U.S. unchanged since 1975. It's a 10-second ad that begins with a little old lady

rolling a tire up to the big storefront window of a Discount Tire location. If ever you're not satisfied with one of our tires, please feel free to bring it back. Then, the little old lady heaves the tire through the plate glass window. Thank you. Discount Tire Company. It's kind of funny. People love that commercial so much, the company has aired it continuously for over 43 years. On the day the commercial was shot,

the film crew gathered in front of a discount tire store ready to have a 66-year-old woman throw the tire through the window. But as it turned out, she couldn't lift it. So a small man dressed up as a little old lady and threw the tire. Except the window didn't break. On the second attempt, the tire did break the glass, but in the wrong spot. So the huge storefront window was replaced again, and the third time was a keeper. Ironically, back in 1975, a single 10-second television commercial was all

Discount Tire could afford. Today, they have 560 stores and 9,000 employees. Little did they know that cheap little commercial would run for decades. I know what you're thinking. Did a real customer ever throw a tire back through a Discount Tire store window? Yep, but it only happened once in 43 years. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the record for the most viewed commercial for a video game was for a Super Bowl ad titled Clash of the Clans Revenge. When it achieved the world record

in 2017, it had been viewed over 160 million times. The commercial stars Liam Neeson, and it begins with Neeson looking menacingly

at his Clash of the Clans app on his smartphone. I don't know you, Big Buffet Boy 85, but if you think you can humiliate me and take my gold, think again. Oh, I am coming for you with lots of barbarians

and dragons. I can't wait to destroy your village. While you beg for mercy, but you will get no mercy. I will have my revenge. Then we realize Nisin is standing in the middle of a Starbucks. Lime? I was going for lime?

Over here. It's, uh, Liam. You will regret the day you crossed Angry Neeson 52. Angry Neeson! Angry Neeson's name was already taken by someone else playing the game, so he had to settle for Angry Neeson 52. According to Guinness, the world record for most viewed online video is for Dove. The video is called Real Beauty Sketches. We've mentioned this video before.

Produced in 2013, the six-minute film was created to show women they are more beautiful than they think they are. As research showed, only 4% of women describe themselves as beautiful. I'm a forensic artist. Worked for the San Jose Police Department from 1995 to 2011. In the video, women are asked to describe themselves to a forensic sketch artist who cannot see them. Tell me about your chin. It kind of protrudes a little bit,

especially when I smile. He sketches them as they describe themselves, as they see themselves. Your jaw. My mom told me I had a big jaw. What would be your most prominent feature? Kind of have a fat, rounder face. Then people who had met the same women earlier that day

were brought in and asked to describe them. And the artist created a sketch based on those descriptions. She was thin, so you could see her cheekbones. And her chin, it was a nice, thin chin. She had nice eyes. They lit up when she spoke. Cute nose. She had blue eyes, very nice blue eyes. When the original women were brought back in,

they were shown the sketch that was done from their own descriptions of themselves, along with the sketch that was based on how someone else had described them. The difference was startling. In every case, the original sketch was far less attractive than the second sketch. Do you think you're more beautiful than you say? Yeah. When it was deemed a world record in 2013, the video had been viewed an astounding 125 million times

in 25 languages in more than 110 countries. According to the Book of World Records, the record for the most expensive television commercial ever produced belongs to Chanel No. 5. It cost $33 million to make. When did I wake? Into this dream. The three-minute commercial was directed by Baz Luhrmann, who has made such films as Moulin Rouge and Strictly Ballroom.

It stars Nicole Kidman, who plays a glamorous actress pursued by the paparazzi. To escape one night, she jumps into a random cab and discovers a young man sitting there who doesn't know who she is. She orders the cab to drive off and she has a four-day affair

with the man until she has to go back to her celebrity life again. Goodbye. My bad. She was gone. The Chanel No. 5 commercial made its debut in North America

in 2004. It was then shown in Australia, the UK, France, and the Netherlands. The commercial is beautifully shot, with stunning locations in France and a sumptuous wardrobe designed by Karl Lagerfeld. Hard to imagine a three-minute commercial, which includes one full minute of credits, cost $33 million, even when you account for the fact Nicole Kidman was paid $3.4 million and director Lerman and Karl Lagerfeld didn't come cheap. It was financed entirely by Chanel.

But there you have it, an expensive Guinness Book of World Records record. And while going big was a successful tactic for Chanel, going small once worked for Gillette. And we'll be right back. Whatever your vibe, Peloton has thousands of classes built to push you. We know how life goes. New father, new routines, 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.

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why not dip into our archives? Available wherever you download your pods. Go to terryoreilly.ca for a master episode list. The world's first ad visible from outer space was unveiled in 2006. It belongs to KFC. It's an 87,500 square foot image of the kernel created to launch KFC's global rebrand. They called it the Face from Space, and it consists of nearly 70,000 painted tiles.

For the first time ever, the Colonel is pictured wearing an apron instead of his typical white double-breasted suit in an effort to bring fried chicken back to its home-style roots. But here's the best part. The ad sits just off the highway outside Rachel, Nevada, home tostyle roots. But here's the best part. The ad sits just off the highway outside Rachel, Nevada, home to Area 51, a remote and highly classified military facility

many claim to be the UFO capital of the world. The KFC president at the time said, If there are extraterrestrials in outer space, KFC wants to become their restaurant of choice. He also said it was one small step for mankind, one giant leap for fried chicken. The record for the world's biggest ad is held by Betfair, an online gambling company.

Though it can't be seen from outer space because it's mainly text, the ad is massive, stretching over 436,000 square meters, or over 4 million square feet. That is the equivalent of 80 North American football fields. It was created for the Euro 2008 football championship. The ad says, The mammoth ad is located on farmland in Austria, near the Vienna International Airport, and it was only visible in its entirety to passengers flying in to watch the games.

It was made up of grass and over 100,000 poppies, chamomile, mustard plants, and marigolds, and it took local farmers four months to grow. Each individual letter measures 144 feet high. Betfair, the world's biggest betting site with the world's biggest ad. Sometimes the way to attract attention in this world is not to go big, but rather to go small. Really small. The Guinness World Record for the world's smallest ad is proudly held by Gillette in the UK.

In 2011, the shaving products company managed to inscribe the line Our best work is viewed up close, followed by the letter G, on a piece of human beard hair. The entire ad measures 65.15 micrometers by 59.34 micrometers. It attracted a lot of press for accomplishing that feat. Just as silence can attract attention on radio, so too can the world's tiniest, tiniest ad. The Guinness record for the world's longest commercial belongs to another fast food restaurant,

Arby's. It actually created a commercial that ran for 13 hours, 5 minutes, and 11 seconds. Arby's is proud of its slow-cooked smokehouse brisket sandwich. Slow-cooked is the operative word there, as every smokehouse brisket sandwich at Arby's is slow-cooked for 13 hours. So on May 24, 2014, Arby's created a commercial that showed a single piece of brisket slow-cooked for 13 hours. So, on May 24, 2014,

Arby's created a commercial that showed a single piece of brisket being slow-cooked for 13 hours, 5 minutes and 11 seconds, complete with an on-screen timer. You can watch the entire commercial on YouTube if you have half a day to spare. But as per the official Guinness guidelines, Arby's realized the commercial needed to air on a licensed television channel

in a normal broadcast slot in order to qualify for a world record. Sure enough, television station KBJR-TV in Duluth, Minnesota, agreed to air the 13-hour commercial on May 24th, spilling into May 25th. The previous record holder, by the way, was Nivea, who had aired a 60-minute commercial in Switzerland to celebrate its 100th anniversary. Canada had an advertising entry in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Much music broke the record for the shortest television commercials. The music station created 11 TV ads that ran for 1 60th of a second each, which was 8 times faster than the previous record holder. You can see them on YouTube. Just don't blink. And finally, one of my favorite world records of all time. It's

for a one-second radio commercial produced in Norway. Here it is. And because my Norwegian is so very excellent, allow me to translate. It says, Guinness Book of World Records. The genius of that commercial is what it manages to accomplish in only one second.

It told you the name of the product, and it demonstrated the main benefit of the Guinness Book of World Records by creating an entry in its own book for the world's shortest radio commercial. The aim of all advertising is to create selling ideas that are impossible to ignore. That gets harder and harder to do in a world where so many brands are competing for the same slice of the public's attention span. But by coloring outside the lines, many companies manage to create commercials or stunts that captivate audiences and attract press by setting new world records. Of course, breaking a world record isn't easy. Even though you can create the world's largest coupon, doesn't mean you get an automatic entry into the fabled Guinness Book of World Records.

As Jack in the Box discovered when they realized the coupon couldn't fit through the door in order to be redeemed. Or when Arby's created a 13-hour commercial, then realized it actually had to run on a real television station to be authenticated. Some records are unintentional. I'm sure Chanel had no intention of breaking the world record for the most expensive commercial ever produced. I have yet to meet a client with that goal in mind. But breaking a world record is a great marketing strategy for attracting attention.

And that fact hasn't gone unnoticed by the folks at Guinness. They actually have a creative department that will help you dream up a world record to set or break to help you launch a new product, rejuvenate an old one, or if you have an anniversary to celebrate. And they'll help you promote

that new record worldwide. Of course, you still have to set the world record yourself, which isn't always easy. Just remember to bring a measuring tape when you're under the influence. I'm Terry O'Reilly. Under the influence was recorded in the Terrestrial. Producer, Debbie O'Reilly.

Sound engineer, Keith Oman. Theme music by Ari Posner and Ian Lefevre. Digital content producer, Sydney O'Reilly. To take a peek inside the Terrestrial mobile recording studio, go to terryoreilly.ca. See you next week. This episode brought to you by the Arby's 13-Hour Smokehouse Brisket 13-Hour

Commercial Commemorative DVD. We don't make sense. We make sandwiches! By the way, feel free to peruse the Under the Influence shop. We've got some fun t-shirts that will fit you to a tee. Go to terryoreilly.ca slash shop. Every purchase supports the show and we appreciate it.