Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly - The Sound of Persuasion

Episode Date: August 21, 2023

This week, Under The Influence listens to the sounds of persuasion. Advertising has used sound to sell for decades. But sound can be used for more than painting pictures on radio – sound can be carefully created to persuade. The stories behind those sounds are fascinating - from the earliest recorded sound, to the first use of sound in radio commercials, to signature sounds on famous ad campaigns, to the startup sound we hear on our computers every day. 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. 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. BetMGM, authorized gaming partner of the NBA, has your back all season long. From tip-off to the final buzzer, 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 player, or your style, there's something every NBA fan will love about BetMGM. Download the app today and discover why BetMGM is your basketball home for the season.

Raise your game to the next level this year with BetMGM. A sportsbook worth a slam dunk. And authorized gaming partner of the NBA. BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. Must be 19 years of age or older to wager Ontario only. Please play responsibly. 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. BitMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario.

Due to popular demand, we've dug very, very deep into our archives and are pleased to announce the re-release of episodes from the last season of The Age of Persuasion. And we've remastered them to fit our Under the Influence format. Here is an episode from 2011. This is an apostrophe podcast production. You're under the influence with Terry O'Reilly. To all that... I wouldn't have seen any of that. On September 15 15, 1967, The Who performed a historic set

on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour TV show. It was historic because of the song My Generation. The Who were not polite like the well-scrubbed Beatles, and you can hear their sneers when Tommy Smothers tries to introduce them. You guys are really too much, and I want to introduce you to the guys individually

in The Who because you never get to know their names. You know them as The Who. Everybody says Who and you say you know. So what's your name? Pete. Pete and where are you from Pete? London. From London? Yeah. Then the band launches into My Generation. As everyone knows, The Who had a unique way of ending all their performances.

They would destroy all of their equipment in a violent storm of guitars bashing amplifiers, feet kicking holes in speakers, and drums being, well, blown up. Drummer Keith Moon was a big fan of explosions. One of his favorite tricks was to flush powerful explosives down hotel toilets, which led him to be banned from several large hotel chains around the world. On the Smothers Brothers show that night, a small amount of explosive was put into a small cannon that Moon kept in his bass drum, but it didn't go off during the rehearsal. Unbeknownst to Keith Moon, a stagehand put another explosive in

it, and later, Keith Moon put yet another explosive in it, for a total of three instead of one. So when the Who came to the end of my generation and started destroying their instruments, suddenly there was a tremendous explosion caught on videotape. On the YouTube clip, you can see singer Roger Daltrey jump back in sheer fright. There's smoke everywhere, and out of the smoke wanders a disoriented Pete Townsend. He is patting a flame out of his hair, and he's rubbing his ear. The unexpected sound of that explosion would rob him of something very important in his profession, his hearing. Townsend lost a substantial part of his ability to hear in one ear that night,

and it would begin a gradual disintegration of his hearing that would haunt him his entire life. Our ability to hear is arguably our greatest sense. Even in caveman days, we could hear a saber-toothed lion before we could see it. It has been our 24-hour early warning system throughout history. Sound is a powerful force in our lives. Marketers have

utilized sound since the turn of the 20th century. Going back to the early days of radio, sound has been an influential marketing strategy. Lend me your ears today as we listen for the many ways marketers have used sound as a powerful selling tool. You may just discover that a lot of the marketing you hear goes in one ear and stays there.

You're under the influence. Sound is immensely powerful in our lives. As audio specialist Julian Treasure notes, hearing develops just 12 weeks after conception. Long before we have ears, we are hearing our mother's heartbeat through every cell. Even as adults, we hear hearing our mother's heartbeat through every cell. Even as adults, we hear through our whole bodies. Ears are

just the specialists. We sense sound through our skin, bone, and muscle. Hearing is the first sense we develop, and according to numerous near-death accounts, it's also the last sense to dim when we die. The reason races start with a pistol

shot and not a burst of light or a waving flag, for example, is that the body reacts much more quickly to sound. Our ears are always on guard. With sight, we see about 180 degrees and around 120 feet high. But hearing is completely 360 degrees spherical. Normal human beings can precisely place a sound in three dimensions. We have no deaf spot because hearing is our primary warning sense. It's on duty from birth to death, with no rest at all. We close our eyes to sleep, but our hearing carries on. Even when we are dreaming, our hearing is constantly scanning and analyzing the sounds around us as protection.

It's why we can be bolted from sleep by the slightest noise. As a result of this highly refined sense, it is very difficult to trick people with sound. That's why there are very few oral illusions, yet there are endless optical ones. The average human

ear can discern over 1,300 barely noticeable differences in tone. But we can only see 150 hues of color. Using this scale, ears are 100 times more sensitive than eyes. It's no surprise then that sound is such a powerful aspect of marketing. It can inspire desire and remind you of a brand instantly when you hear a cue. You can listen to a commercial from around a corner even when you can't see it, and sound can make your mouth water.

All of which is highly desirable to marketers. I have spent nearly my entire career in the sound business. Creating sound for commercials was my specialty. I spent a lot of time thinking about sounds, how to create them, which ones to carefully choose, what response they elicit, and which sound effects are the best to create or enhance a story or a brand. Way back in our very first season of this show, we did an episode that talked about how radio can create wonderful pictures with sound,

but sound can also persuade. Marketers have long used sound and sound effects in advertising, having learned important lessons in the early days of motion pictures and radio. When I went searching for the earliest examples of recorded sounds, it was amazing what was available. In 1860, a French inventor recorded a folk song called Auclair de la Lune using an invention he called a phonoautographer. It may sound a little spooky, but it's actually amazing it has survived. 17 years later, in 1877,

Edison created and patented the cylinder phonograph. He made a sketch of his invention, as he imagined it, and gave it to his mechanic, who apparently built it in 30 hours. Edison immediately tested the machine and chose a nursery rhyme as his first words He recorded it and, to his amazement the machine played his voice back to him Mary had a little lamb, it squeaked quite a slow

and everywhere that Mary went, the lamb was sure to go Edison then experimented with synchronizing recorded sound to moving pictures He invented something he called a kinetophone in 1884. A film was made by William Dixon using Edison's invention,

and it was thought to have been lost for over 80 years. Then, in 1964, the broken cylinder was discovered, and in 1998, the cylinder was repaired. Here it is. And if you listen closely,

you can hear someone say, Are the rest of you ready? Go ahead. The film shows a man playing a violin into a huge cylinder while two men dance nearby. Total time? 17 seconds. But history was made. In 1925, there was a short film made of Gus Visser and his singing duck. Oh my! He's making eyes at me.

Ha! He is a full-nose to me. Oh, ha! He is almost breaking my heart. Gus held the duck as he sang. I do not want to know how he made the duck quack. Everything you just heard predated the movie The Jazz Singer, starring Al Jolson, which is famously thought to be the first talkie. It wasn't, but it was indeed the first

mass-marketed feature-length film that incorporated sound and synchronized speech. When silent film actors could finally be heard, it killed some careers and ignited others. One thing it did prove, the power of sound couldn't be denied. As sound became a permanent part of the movies,

Madison Avenue began to wake up to its huge potential. With the advent of radio in the 1920s, an advertising executive said, never before in history had 50 million people listened to the same sound at exactly the same time. It was revolutionary. And above all, it was a persuasive selling tool that could make the invisible visible.

In case nobody's told you, weight loss goes beyond the old just eat less and move more narrative. And that's where Felix comes in. Felix is redefining weight loss for Canadians with a smarter, more personalized approach to help you crush your health goals this year. Losing weight is about more than diet and exercise. It can also be about our genetics, hormones, metabolism. Felix connects you with online licensed healthcare practitioners who understand that everybody is different and can pair your healthy lifestyle with the right support to reach your goals. Start your visit today at felix.ca.

That's F-E-L-I-X dot C-A. Whether you're in your running era, Pilates era, or yoga era, dive into Peloton workouts that work with you. From meditating at your kid's game to mastering a strength program, they've got everything you need to keep knocking down your goals. No pressure to be who you're not. Just 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. Advertisers soon began to use sound to embed brands in people's minds. And throughout the ensuing decades, advertising experimented with different kinds of sounds in order to persuade. Many hours have been spent in boardrooms and recording studios trying to decide which sounds create the most desire, which ones are the most memorable, and which most perfectly capture the essence of a product.

The use of sound as a selling tool goes back a long way in the history of advertising. In 1939, for example, Old Dutch Cleanser was running radio commercials. They described how Old Dutch cleaned sinks, pots, and pans better than any other cleanser. The reason was because Old Dutch contained an ingredient that cleaned and polished surfaces without scratching. When Mrs. Irving Cruz of 2000 Greenleaf Avenue, Chicago, watched the coin test, she said, quote, It's amazing to see the difference in cleansers.

The coin moves so smoothly over the Old Dutch. But how do you prove a visual promise on radio? Old Dutch chose a coin test. Two glasses were used, the first sprinkled with another leading cleanser, the second with Old Dutch. And this is what listeners heard. Take a piece of glass and sprinkle a little cleanser on it. Then rub a coin over the cleanser. Listen. That grinding and grating sound is your warning that this cleanser contains scratchy particles that will mar surfaces. Making them harder to keep clean, more work for you. But when the coin was used on the old Dutch glass, listeners heard this. It was a mighty persuasive sound. Or or should I say, non-sound,

and Old Dutch became the choice of households everywhere. Maxwell House Coffee Harness Sound to Sell Its Product The smell of fresh-brewed coffee was a powerful selling tool, but it was impossible to employ on radio and television. So Maxwell House used the sound of brewing coffee to stimulate the smell in people's minds. This is the coffee pot at work. Listen to it purr. Look at the coffee as it gets darker and stronger.

Smell the honest coffee smell. Ah, smell it. But will this cup of coffee taste as good as it smells? You bet it will because it's Maxwell House, the coffee that tastes as good as it smells every time. Alka-Seltzer was another brand that persuaded through sound. I suspect the following commercial isn't so much about the Christmas holidays as it was about hangovers. This is Ken Nardine.

When you check off that last item on your Christmas shopping list, it's a big relief to know that all your shopping is done. But before you do tear up that list, be sure you bought some Alka-Seltzer. You don't want a headache, upset stomach, or general achiness to spoil

your holiday fun. Now listen as an Alka-Seltzer tablet is dropped into a glass of water. The sound is meant to brand the product. Then just drop one or two tablets into a glass of water like this. Listen to it fizz. That's Alka-Seltzer changing

into a sparkling liquid for relief. When Alka-Seltzer realized it could double sales overnight by recommending two tablets be used at a time, plop-plop-fizz-fizz became a powerful audio cue. Here's a commercial where Sammy Davis Jr. takes over the sound effect duties. Plop-plop-fizz-fizz

Ooh, what a relief it is Bass, bass, bass. Bass. Fast Company once published an interesting article titled The Ten Most Addictive Sounds in the World. In it, marketing writer Martin Lindstrom states that sounds have a unique ability to make us buy more, want more, dream more, and eat more. He notes, for example, that when the sounds were removed from slot machines in Las Vegas, revenue fell by 24%.

So that didn't last long. In his book Biology, Lindstrom notes that Kellogg's has spent years cultivating a signature crunch sound, even going so far as to hire a Danish lab to design a one-of-a-kind crunch for cornflakes. They wanted kids to be able to hear the difference between the sound of eating generic cornflakes and the Kellogg's brand. Well, I'm awake. Make no mistake. I want the best in my bowl. I want Kellogg's Corn Flakes. I want the crunch. That crisp, big crunch. I want the best in my bowl. I want Kellogg's Corn Flakes.

Car manufacturers employ acoustic engineers to create very specific sounds. Mercedes, Lexus, and even Ford, for example, create a recognizable vault-like sound when their car doors close. That sound is one of the first prospective buyers hear when they're in the showroom, so it's important. The meaty kerchunk sound of a car door closing is carefully chosen to persuade you that you are secure, and it also gives you a subconscious sense of value. The Nissan LEAF had to deal with a different issue, namely that electric cars make no sound, which can be problematic for seeing and hearing impaired pedestrians. The LEAF needed audio visibility. In a four-year international study, Nissan consulted acoustic experts, universities, a Hollywood sound company,

and the National Federation for the Blind to test for the most appropriate sound. 100 were developed. And from that list, this sound was chosen for going forward. to test for the most appropriate sound. 100 were developed. And from that list, this sound was chosen for going forward. And this sound was chosen when moving in reverse. It's interesting to me that Nissan chose a sound that was futuristic. It not only solved the problem of the electric car's audio visibility, but it also created the impression of leading technology.

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.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 at onepeloton.ca Choosing sound is a delicate process. The sound a can of Pringles potato chips makes when it's opened is engineered specifically to make you associate the product

with lip-smacking freshness. At McDonald's, even the scratchy punching sound your straw makes when it penetrates the plastic lid is created specifically to make you crave an ice-cold Coke and a large fry. Many advertisers use mnemonics to create audio branding. The word mnemonic comes from the Greek word nemon, meaning mindful and relating to memory. It's spelled M-N-E-M-O-N-I-C. Considering it's a word about remembering, it's ironic that the spelling is almost impossible to remember.

The definition of a mnemonic is a device such as a pattern of letters, ideas, sounds, or associations that assists in remembering something. The use of audio mnemonics goes back a long way. Avon used a mnemonic in its TV commercials beginning in the 1950s. Avon calling. The Avon doorbell was an inviting sound

and it captured the essence of Avon, which was a door-to-door sales strategy. It began as a company in 1886, and because so many customers were rural at the time, Avon salespeople had to travel to reach them. By 1954, sales had reached $55 million, and the famous Avon Calling campaign was launched. The doorbell mnemonic had two tasks, one, to brand Avon Calling Campaign was launched. The doorbell mnemonic had two tasks.

One, to brand Avon commercials, and two, to persuade women to welcome Avon reps into their homes when they heard their own doorbells ring. For years, Nokia used a very familiar mnemonic. It's a musical phrase taken from a composition called Gran Vals by the Spanish classical composer Francisco Torega, written in 1902. The phrase is taken from bars 13 to 16. The Nochean mnemonic was heard an estimated 1.8 billion times a day,

which means it was played more than 20,000 times per second, reinforcing Nokia's brand in the mobile phone category. Intel used this mnemonic for years. The company used it to solve a branding problem. Intel manufactured the microprocessor chips that went inside computers.

Computer chips had never been branded before. And the biggest problem was they were invisible. They were hidden deep inside your computer. And the public didn't care about them.

So Intel created a mnemonic to be used, not only in Intel commercials, but in any commercials for computers that used Intel chips. The mnemonic told the public that the computer had Intel inside, and that the fastest computers had Intel chips. So that mnemonic created a demand for computers with Intel inside. It's a simple five-note mnemonic, but not so simple to create. The first tone is an audio sparkle made up of more than 20 sounds, including a tambourine, an anvil, an electric spark, and a hammer on a pipe. The four notes that follow are a mix of xylophone, marimba, bells, and other sounds. Speaking of computers, do you recognize this sound?

It was created by Jim Reeks, and he named it Sosumi. In the early days of Apple's Mac computers, he was charged with composing a startup sound. He knew the sound would be heard often, and since the early Macs would crash a lot, he didn't want the sound to become annoying. Instead, he wanted a sound that was, in his words, zen, calm, and like a palate cleanser.

Put another way, Apple wanted that sound to persuade you that booting up your Mac is always the start of a pleasurable experience. Reeks created it using a C major chord that incorporated a lot of rich textures in it, including strings and guitars. At the time, the Beatles' Apple Records was suing Apple for infringement on their name.

As a result, Apple computers had to be very careful that they didn't venture into any musical territory, a legal issue that took years to resolve, by the way. So when Reeks developed the Apple startup sound, he wanted to call it the Apple Chime. But Apple's lawyers were against it, saying the word Chime was too musical and would risk another lawsuit from the Beatles. So Reeks then said, let's call it Let It Beep,

as a sarcastic take on the Beatles' Let It Be song, which further annoyed the lawyers. So then Reeks just threw up his hands and said, So Sue Me. And that is the name of the Apple startup sound. So Sue Me, spelled S-O-S-U-M-I. It is remarkable how much we rely on our sense of hearing. It truly is our 24-hour warning system, staying on duty tirelessly, scanning relentlessly, even as we sleep, even as we dream. It may be the one sense that helped us survive our caveman days.

As a creator of sound, I find it interesting that whenever I wanted to create a peaceful, inviting soundscape in a commercial, I often chose this sound. And there's probably a reason for that, going back to caveman days, as a matter of fact. When something predatory was sneaking through the underbrush, birds stopped singing. So if birds are singing, you know everything is all right. And that's what makes sound such a persuasive selling tool. It makes it possible to see clean glassware on radio,

to listen around corners, smell coffee when looking at a TV screen, make our mouths water, and conjure up images of a brand when no other information is present. It can give a silent car audio visibility. It can brand a microchip hidden deep inside a computer.

And give us the feeling of calmness when starting our computers without once annoying the world's most famous band. That's the amazing thing about sound. It can speak to us on so many levels when you're under the influence. I'm Terry O'Reilly. Thank you. Follow me on social at Terry O Influence. If you liked this episode, you might also like our sister podcast titled, We Regret to Inform You, The Rejection Podcast.

It tells inspiring stories of people who overcome massive career rejection and succeed by never giving up. Like Simon and Garfunkel and Lady Gaga. You'll find it wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also find our podcasts on the new Apostrophe YouTube channel. And if you think there are too many ads in a show about advertising, how does this sound? You can now listen to our podcasts ad-free on Amazon Music.

See you next time. Fun fact! The lawsuit between the Beatles' Apple Records and Apple Computers lasted for nearly 30 years. Wow, talk about a long and winding road. In case nobody's told you, weight loss goes beyond the old just eat less and move more narrative and that's where felix comes in felix is redefining weight loss for canadians with a smarter more personalized approach to help you crush your health goals this year losing weight is about

more than diet and exercise it can also be about our genetics, hormones, metabolism. Felix connects you with online licensed healthcare practitioners who understand that everybody is different and can pair your healthy lifestyle with the right support to reach your goals. Start your visit today at felix.ca. That's F-E-L-I-X dot C-A. Whether you're in your running era, Pilates era, or yoga era, dive into Peloton workouts that work with you. From meditating at your kid's game to mastering a strength program, they've got everything you need to keep knocking down your goals. No pressure to be who you're not.

Just 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.