Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly - Seeing is Believing: The Power of Demonstration Commercials - Part 2

Episode Date: March 2, 2024

Last week, we talked about the best historic demonstration commercials of all time. This week, we feature some of the most recent.Like an air freshener commercial that tricked blindfolded people into thinking a filthy toilet smelled like flowers.And a stunt where an ad agency put $3 million dollars between the glass of a bus shelter - unguarded, to demonstrate a point. 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. This is an apostrophe podcast production. Your teeth look whiter than no nose. You're not you when you're hungry. You're a good hand with all the teeth. You're under the influence with Terry O'Reilly. Question. Can a cow climb a tree?

Of course not. Can a horse climb a tree? Of course not. Can a horse climb a tree? No. Can a sheep climb a tree? Absolutely not. Can a goat climb a tree? Well, yes. Goats are not cuddly like sheep. You can't ride them like horses. They aren't as ubiquitous as cows. And their eyes are kind of creepy. But in lieu of all that, nature has given certain goats a superpower.

They can climb trees. The first time I saw a photo of goats in trees, I thought it was a joke. But it's true. In southwest Morocco, the dry, arid ground doesn't produce much vegetation. But there's a tree there called Argania spinosa, also known as an argan tree. These trees produce a fruit goats love. The round, grape-like fruit is yellow or brown in color, has a soft, pulpy flesh with an oil-rich nut at the center.

And by the way, those nuts contain an oil that is prized for its skin-moisturizing ability. The goats spit the nuts out and the Moroccan villagers collect the valuable oil. Goats have an acute sense of smell and are drawn to the argan fruit by its sweet aroma.

So the goats climb the 10-meter or 30-foot trees to eat the fruit, and they climb straight up the trees with ease. It's not unusual to see half a dozen goats up in a tall tree, balancing on long branches that seem to defy physics. It's an extraordinary sight. Goats have evolved to do difficult climbs. You've probably seen pictures of mountain goats scaling a sheer rock face with ease in a way that an expert human climber with high-tech equipment could never pull off.

Goats have unusual hoofs. They have two toes that can spread out to gain secure footing and two dewclaws higher up on their legs that can be used as leverage when climbing a vertical surface. Plus, goats have an innate sense of balance that humans and most other animals simply do not possess. It's easy to think pictures of goats in trees are photoshopped, but they're not. I invite you to search goats in trees on Google or YouTube.

Because even though the thought of goats climbing tall trees is mind-boggling, seeing is believing. Seeing is believing in the world of marketing too. Welcome to part two of our demonstration commercials episode. There's nothing more powerful than seeing a product demonstration, especially if that demonstration is dramatic or completely surprising. In our last episode, we talked about the classic demonstration commercials. But in the 21st century, demonstration commercials have scaled new heights.

You're under the influence. Last week, I asked a dozen top advertising creative directors to list the GOAT, or Greatest of All Time, demonstration commercials. And we talked about the top classic ones. This week, I'm going to go back to those lists to talk about the most recent examples. The creative directors returned to Volvo. The classic Volvo print ad we discussed last week had the ad writer lying on the floor under a suspended Volvo to prove the strength of the car's spot welds. Well, not long ago, Volvo created another remarkable demonstration

commercial starring Jean-Claude Van Damme. We talked about this ad when it first came out. The commercial was designed to demonstrate the precision steering available in Volvo 18-wheeler trucks. The dynamic steering system receives 2,000 signals per second

from the truck's onboard sensors, allowing for remarkable control. Here was the commercial idea. Two big Volvo 18-wheeled transports are moving side by side on a stretch of highway. Standing between the two trucks is Jean-Claude Van Damme. But the trucks aren't moving forward. They're moving backwards. I've had my ups and downs, my fair share of bumpy roads and heavy winds. That's what made me what I am today. Now I stand here before

you. What you see is a body crafted to perfection, a pair of legs engineered to defy the laws of physics and a mindset to master the most epic of splits. As the camera pulls back, we see that Van Damme is actually straddling both vehicles with one foot on the side mirror of each truck. As the trucks move in reverse, they begin to slowly separate, causing the then 53-year-old Van Damme to do something remarkable. He starts doing the splits.

It's amazing to see. You have to watch it on YouTube. The trucks stay perfectly in sync, moving at a good speed, backwards, as Van Damme slowly moves into a full split. Once he attains that epic split, the trucks remain perfectly stable, still moving backwards down the highway, providing a spectacular demonstration of the exquisite precision of Volvo Dynamic Steering. The ad agency and film company rehearsed the stunt for three days, and when it came time for Van Damme, the commercial was shot in one single take.

The choice to put the trucks in reverse was strategic, as everyone knows driving backwards is much more challenging than moving forward. The spectacular demonstration was put online so it could reach millions of truck companies and future truck drivers. To date, that commercial has been viewed 118 million times. Remember the Dove litmus test from last week,

where litmus paper was used to demonstrate how mild Dove is compared to all other soaps? Recently, there was another litmus ad done. It was a billboard in the UK. It was created by an environmental organization called Friends of the Earth. The billboard said, this is litmus paper. When acid rain is falling, you should see red. After several rainfalls, the entire billboard turned red. A stunningly quick transformation. A video of the billboard changing color was put online. The disturbing message was set to the innocent tune of Rhythm of the Rain by the Cascades from 1962. The video ended by asking people to join Friends of the Earth.

Because the Earth needs all the friends it can get. Back in 1966, Volkswagen was the new small car sensation. It did a TV commercial that showed basketball great Wilt Chamberlain standing beside a VW Beetle. When 7-foot-1-inch Wilt Chamberlain tried to get in a Volkswagen, people said it couldn't be done. Mmm. Mmm. Oh, man. It couldn't. Of course, there's plenty of room for Bill Cunningham, but then he's only 6-foot-6. It wasn't ad showing the surprising legroom inside a tiny VW Beetle

because the engine was in the back. Now, fast forward ahead 40 years. The new small car sensation was the BMW Mini. Like the VW Beetle, it was small and loaded with personality. A 15-second TV commercial was produced to demonstrate the surprising roominess of a Mini. The commercial begins with a Mini parked in an isolated spot at night. Inside the car, a girl and a guy pop up, a little out of breath, hair tousled, doing up their shirts, when the girl says, Wow, there is a lot of room in here.

Then suddenly, a second girl pops up in the back seat. Threesome, anyone? It was a 21st century version of the VW Wilt Chamberlain demonstration. With a bigger layup. Back in the day, air freshener commercials would show a room full of cigarette smoke filled with unhappy people. Then, with the spray of a room freshener, everybody would be happy again. These days, air freshener commercials take it a bit further. Febreze launched a campaign to prove that eliminating bad odors and replacing them with freshness could make people happier. So it launched the Febreze Breathe Happy social experiment,

based on one universal insight. You can close your eyes, but you can never turn off your nose. According to Febreze, we breathe in 23,000 times a day, and the odors are often far from pleasant. So Febreze pulled in people from off the street, blindfolded them, and exposed them to some very smelly items and locations. But here's the kicker. Those terrible odors were treated with Febreze. Then, the people were asked to describe what they smelled. In one instance, a blindfolded woman smelled a very well-worn boot, and when asked to describe

it, she said, They described what they smelled. Okay, that reminds me of breakfast. And witnessed firsthand that Febreze really can make you happier. In another experiment, a blindfolded man is asked to smell a disgusting pile of filthy dishes

in the back of a restaurant. Tell me what you smell. I smell caramel, like a caramel candy. Go ahead and take your blindfold off. Oh my God. Oh wow, man. The commercials directed people to Facebook where they could see even more experiments. Another asked a blindfolded man to sniff the armpit of a bodybuilder,

then said the smell reminded him of a pleasant forest. In still another cringeworthy moment, a blindfolded woman is asked to smell an appallingly dirty toilet of a pleasant forest. In still another cringeworthy moment, a blindfolded woman is asked to smell an appallingly dirty toilet and describes it as floral. Cringeworthy, but highly persuasive. In every case, people describe the worst possible revolting smelly situation with words like... There's a freshness.

Watermelon-y, but a little bit tart. Clean. Like a Macintosh apple. Just smell apples and pears. Cider. Scarecrows. Pumpkins. Oh, come on.

I smell apples. Reminds me of Mother's Day. I guess I could be in Spain. We're at a really nice, posh resort. Seems very spacious. Makes me feel... hungry. And when they were told to take their blindfolds off...

No sh**. Febreze Set and Refresh. Eliminates odors so you can breathe happy. It was a powerful demonstration. The Breathe Happy social experiment generated over 1 billion worldwide media impressions and a 425% increase in Facebook fans, making the Febreze page the world's third fastest-growing page in the weeks following the launch. The campaign worked, as it generated 10 weeks of continuous sales growth.

The demonstrations were so persuasive, Febreze became one of the fastest-growing brands for Procter & Gamble, even though it had no new product news to promote. And that's nothing to sniff at. While a lot of demonstration commercials are devised to surprise you, some are created to put you to sleep. The mattress industry has gone from a sleepy, back-of-the-store category to a highly competitive one.

Much of its success has been built with demonstration commercials. Simmons Beautyrest and Sealy Mattresses have been slugging it out for years. Sealy Mattresses started out in 1881 when a cotton gin builder got a request for a cotton Sealy mattresses started out in 1881 when a cotton gin builder got a request for a cotton-filled mattress. More and more requests came in,

so Sealy began to manufacture cotton mattresses and filed several patents. Meanwhile, Simmons Beautyrest introduced the revolutionary pocketed coil springs

in 1925. Each pocket moved individually, so one person rolling over on a mattress wouldn't disturb the other sleeping partner. That innovation was dramatically demonstrated in a way many of you will remember. In the commercial, a set of bowling pins is standing on the competition's mattress. Then, a bowling ball is dropped onto the mattress. To demonstrate the unique Beautyrest mattress by Simmons, we're dropping the ball, on the competition that is. And all of the pins fall down, because the coils on the competitive mattress are all linked. Then, a bowling ball is dropped onto a Beautyrest mattress

with individually pocketed coils. The pins don't fall. They don't even quiver. Almost every other mattress made relies on linked springs, so when the person next to you moves, you get disturbed. But only Beautyrest uses individually pocketed coils to help assure you undisturbed sleep. It was a powerful visual demonstration.

Then along came a new mattress company called Tempur-Pedic. The Tempur material was actually invented by NASA to absorb the G-force of astronauts traveling in space. It was a revolutionary slow springback foam containing billions of open cells that were heat sensitive. It adapts to your body's weight, shape, and temperature. When NASA released the formula for consumer use, a company called Tempur-Pedic began developing mattresses with the material.

As a new entrant into the well-established mattress category, Tempur-Pedic had to make a splash, or a non-splash, so to speak. In a memorable demonstration, a man jumps up and down on a white mattress. There is also a glass of red wine on that mattress. Look how this wine glass doesn't tip over when this person jumps up and down. No other sleep surface can absorb motion and cushion weight like Tempur-Pedic.

It was a very convincing demonstration of how the mattress doesn't cause what the industry calls motion transfer. Because Tempur-Pedic had done away with springs. It was revolutionary, but that meant people were skeptical. After all, the public had been sleeping on springs for a century, and a Tempur-Pedic mattress wasn't cheap.

So Tempur-Pedic took the risk out of the purchase. It sent potential customers a free video and information kit that included a temper material sample that you could hold in your hand and squeeze. When you purchased the mattress, you could try it out for 120 nights free of charge. If you didn't like it, you could return it. And you got a 20-year limited warranty. But above all, it was the wine glass demonstration that launched Tempur-Pedic into the stratosphere. And that wine glass is still used in commercials today. Not long ago, a highly awarded advertising agency called Rethink in Vancouver created a very memorable demonstration.

It was the model of simplicity. Their client was a security company that wanted to promote the strength of 3M unbreakable glass. So Rethink installed stacks of money three feet high between the glass of a bus shelter. If you were to do the math, that stack of bills would total around $3 million. The logo simply said, 3M unbreakable glass. Then Rethink just left it there, on the street, unguarded.

Next, they aimed a video camera at the bus shelter to see if people would try to break the glass. Sure enough, people lined up to try. They kicked it, they hit it, there were a few flying sidekicks, and even some construction workers with steel-toed boots.

The glass never broke. The press excitedly covered the spectacle, generating about $1 million worth of publicity for the security company and 3M. The National Post devoted a full-page story to the million-dollar stunt. The story went round the world. It was a fascinating product demonstration because it wasn't on television or in a magazine. It was out on the street for the public to see

and kick for themselves. My friend Paul Lavoie founded one of the most creative advertising agencies in Canada that we've spoken about many times, called Taxi Advertising. When I asked Paul about his favorite demonstration commercials, he pointed out that some demonstrations can be told conceptually. When I asked Paul about his favorite demonstration commercials, he pointed out that some demonstrations can be told conceptually. A demonstration of a demonstration, in other words. For example, he told me about a Christmas commercial he once saw. It was very simple. A hand comes into frame and shakes a snow globe.

But nothing happens. Then words appear on the screen that said, Happy Holidays from Head and Shoulders. Such a perfectly simple demonstration for a dandruff shampoo. Paul also told me a story about a commercial he once created for a banana yogurt. His idea was to have a monkey sitting at a table, and on that table was a banana on the left and a cup of banana yogurt on the right. And the monkey had to decide which he wanted.

The ape looked back and forth, scratched his head, then chose the banana, as expected. But then, he unexpectedly takes the banana and uses it as a spoon to eat the banana yogurt. A very funny idea to demonstrate that even a banana expert would choose the yogurt.

To shoot that commercial, two monkeys were flown up from Los Angeles, because where else do you find monkeys with agents? There was a lead monkey and a backup monkey. They arrived wearing diapers, as they were both under three years of age. The handler said young monkeys are more trainable and controllable. The handler had spent a few weeks training the monkeys to sit at the table, look at the two options, choose the banana, then use it as a spoon to eat the yogurt.

Everything was set to go. Then suddenly the lead monkey got the hiccups, which lasted for three hours. So the handler had to go to the backup monkey. It took a little more time, but the second monkey pulled it off. A very funny commercial. When the shoot ended, Paul Lavoie marveled at how smart the monkeys were. Actually, said the monkey handler,

these are the dumbest monkeys I could find. Paul said, what do you mean? The handler went on to explain that, just like people, there are smart monkeys and not-so-smart monkeys. A smarter, older monkey could be taught to do everything the commercial required in just a few hours,

as opposed to the weeks it took to train the less intelligent monkeys. monkey could be taught to do everything the commercial required in just a few hours, as opposed to the weeks it took to train the less intelligent monkeys. But the handler knew there would be multiple takes required, that the director and the client and a bunch of other people would be asking for changes and nuances to speed up or slow down. And the dumb monkeys have the most patience. The smart monkey would get bored waiting for all the decisions to get made and would start acting up. The dumb one would just sit there and repeat the actions over and over again, demonstrating that a low IQ can be very appealing. A dramatic product demonstration will always be the holy grail in advertising.

It strips away exaggeration, puffery, and the need to manufacture a storyline. And it shows you how the product solves a problem or delivers a promise in such a memorable and surprising way

your eyebrows shoot up. Like that 3M unbreakable glass stunt in Vancouver. And that demonstration convinces you to buy the product. But the world is shifting.

AI is really going to test our reserve when it comes to seeing is believing. Because deep fakes are remarkably realistic, but still fake. That's why governments are scrambling to put some guardrails on AI development. But the toothpaste may already be out of the tube. Instead of being easier to demonstrate a product dramatically, I actually think it will become more difficult to amaze people. Because I Can't Believe My Eyes is slowly turning into I Can't believe my eyes,

when you're under the influence. I'm Terry O'Reilly. This episode was recorded in the Terrastream Airstream mobile recording studio. Producer, Debbie O'Reilly. Sound engineer, Jeff Devine. Under the influence theme by Ari Posner and Ian Lefevre. Tunes provided by APM Music. Follow me on social at Terry O'Influence.

This podcast is powered by ACAST. And if you'd like to read next week's fun fact, just go to apostrophepodcasts.ca and follow the prompts to record it. See you next time. Hi, this is Scenery Slater from Denman Island, BC. Fun fact, believe it or not, it is actually illegal to buy a mattress on Sundays in Washington State. But the police don't lose any sleep over it.