Under The Influence
About the show
Back in 2005, I was at a lunch with three good friends from the radio business. Over a few beers, one of those friends, Larry MacInnis, said, “You know, Terry, if you were to break your annual creative radio seminar into smaller pieces, it would make an interesting radio show.”
See, once a year, I would stage a big radio event, and invite about 200 young copywriters to a theatre. Over the course of the day, I would teach them how to produce creative radio commercials.
But I had never thought of turning it into a radio series.
So I laughed and said to Larry, “Who would run a radio show like that?” He paused, and said, “The CBC.”
To which I replied, “You mean the advertising-free CBC? The network people flee to in order to avoid advertising? That network?”
“Yeah,” he said.
Well, this year will mark the 15th anniversary of that radio show airing on CBC and Sirius Satellite.
It began as a 10-episode summer replacement series in 2005. Co-created with Mike Tennant, the show was titled O’Reilly On Advertising. The program explored the world of advertising in a fun and irreverent way. Response was so positive – so quickly – that CBC asked us to stay on and produce a total of 25 episodes that first year.
When CBC wanted the show to come back in 2006, we decided to recalibrate the series, take a longer view, and re-christened it, “The Age of Persuasion.”
The program looked at all aspects of advertising, from copywriting, to radio commercials, to TV commercials, to direct mail, to the history of advertising – then broke it all down – and took listeners behind the walls of advertising agencies and big brands.
The audience responded and grew with each season. By 2010, we were averaging about 450,000 listeners per week.
Around the same time, the show was picked up by WBEZ in Chicago, and our American audience started to grow.
In 2010, my series co-creator, Mike Tennant, went on to pursue other projects. It was as good a time as any to reboot and rebrand, as so much had changed in the world of marketing since 2005.
So Age of Persuasion continued for one more year, then in 2012, the show expanded to take a much wider look at – not just advertising – but the expanding world of marketing. With that refocus, the show changed its name to become, “Under The Influence.”
Since that change, our audience numbers took a big jump. We have over a million listeners per week in Canada alone, and our podcast has been downloaded over 35 million times. We also have a sizable audience abroad, with listeners in countries as far away as Britain, Germany, France, Ireland, Sweden, Australia, Japan, China, Philippines and Mexico.
In 2011, iTunes named the show the Best New Podcast of the year.
The New York Festivals awarded the show the Grand Trophy as the Best Radio Program in 2011 and again in 2012.
iTunes named Under The Influence one of the Best Podcasts of 2015.
And again in 2019, we were named one of Apple Podcasts Most Popular Shows Overall.
And believe it or not, we just surpassed our 300th episode.
Who knew?
Besides Larry MacInnis, of course.
Master Episode List
- Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel: Marketing TV Shows
- Goliath Meet David: Small Brands That Beat The Big Boys
- Putting Fans In Stands: How Sports Teams Sell Tickets
- Sound + Vision: Album Covers As Marketing
- Sound + Vision: Album Covers As Marketing, Pt. II
- Set Jetting: Film Locations As Tourism Marketing
- Getting Personal In The Classifieds (Repeat, Season I)
- The Name Game: Brand Names In Different Countries
- Search Parties: The Relentless Hunt For New Customers
- Come Fly With Me: Airports Are Now Brands
- For Better or For Worse: Wedding Marketing
- Striking Images: Matchbook Advertising (Repeat, Season I)
- Lend Us Your Ears: The Intimate Art of ASMR Marketing
- Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down: The New World of Online Reviews
- Takes a Licking and Keeps On Ticking: Advertising Torture Tests
- Brand Envy 2020
- Movie Merchandising (Repeat, Season V)
- Talk Ain’t Cheap: How Conversations Impact Business
- Flip, Flop or Fly: The World of Test Markets
- Setting The Table: Best Opening Stories
- Fix It Again, Tony: Brand Nicknames
- Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel: Marketing TV Shows (Repeat, Season IX)
- Bookmarks 2020
- Branding A Disease
- You Must Remember This: The Mandela Effect
- Ask Terry 2020
- Jumping The Shark: Spokesperson Disasters
- Wacky Ad Spaces
- A Matter of Time: The History of Commercial Lengths
- Vending Machines: Coin Operated Marketing
- Monastic Merchandise: Products Made By Monks
- The Pompatus of Skippy: Brand Names in Songs
- The Most Interesting Adman in the World: The Story of Albert Lasker (Repeat, Season VI)
- Putting the Woo in Hollywood: Marketing the Movies
- Unwitting Endorsers
- Distress Purchases
- Air Quality: Innovations in Radio
- Objection Overruled: Law Firm Advertising
- Promise Less, Profit More (Repeat, Season V)
- Disgustingly Effective: The Marketing of Bodily Functions
- Little Big Towns: Roadside Attractions As Marketing
- Red Sheep: The Power of Word-of-Mouth Advertising
- Best Product in a Leading Role: Celebrity CEOs
- Under The Influence of My Influences
- Selling The Dream: Real Estate Advertising (Repeat, Season VI)
- To Bleep or Not To Bleep: Vulgar Trademarks
- Brand Envy 2019
- Bookmarks 2019
- The Risk in The Asterisk: Fine Print & Advertising Disclaimers
- God Save the Commercial: When Ads Are Banned
- Ask Terry 2019
- Put It Between Your Knees & Squeeze: Marketing A Fad
- I See A Little Silhouetto Of A Brand: How Old School Products Survive
- Damn The Torpedoes
- Underwear In Your Mailbox: Subscription Marketing
- Delicious Names: Marketing Appetite Appeal
- A Wild & Crazy Idea: How Companies Solve Big, Hairy Problems
- Comic Book Advertising
- Kentucky Fried Brand Myths
- Celebrities: Living To Tell The Tales
- Worthless to Priceless
- Brands Are People, Too: Products Named After Inventors
- Famous Jingles
- Famous Jingles, Part II
- It’s The Little Things (Repeat, Season I)
- Hey Vern! When Ads Go Hollywood
- Brand Envy 2018
- Bookmarks 2018
- Lemonade: Marketing A Negative
- Colour Schemes: How Colours Make You Buy (Repeat, Season II)
- Avon Calling: Door-To-Door Marketing
- Marching Orders: Household Products Invented By The Military
- Guinness Book Of World Ad Records
- How Tourism Survives A Tragedy
- Fasten Your Seatbelts: How Self-Driving Cars & Marketing Collide
- Ask Terry 2018
- The Crazy World of Trademarks
- LIVE PODCAST: Unforeseen Circumstances: How Companies Are Affected By Chance
- Passport Revoked: When Brands Fail Internationally
- What A Difference A Difference Makes: Standing Out in the Marketplace
- Judgment Day: Super Bowl Advertising
- Lead Balloons: When Negative Brand Names Work
- Small Move, Big Gain (Repeat, Season V)
- Brands In Cars Getting Coffee: Sponsorship Marketing
- The Elephant in the Room: Humane Marketing vs. Profit
- The Odd Couple: Unlikely Marketing Collaborations
- The Frankenstein Factor: Inventors Who Regret Their Inventions
- Commercial Parodies! (Repeat, Season V)
- The Wizarding World of Influencer Marketing
- Selling The Dream: Real Estate Advertising
- Guys and Dolls: Gender Marketing, Part I
- Guys and Dolls: Gender Marketing, Part II
- When Madison Avenue Met Broadway: The World of Industrial Musicals
(Repeat, Season V) - Grab Your Wallet: When Brands Go Political
- Brand Envy: #CANADA150
- The Most Interesting Adman in the World: The Story of Albert Lasker
- The Crazy World of Trademarks (Repeat, Season VI)
- The Lean Mean Fat Reducing Money Machine: How Marketing Affects Sports
- Now Splinter Free: How Marketing Broke Taboos
- Cannes Creative Advertising Be Effective?
- Bookmarks 2017
- Ask Terry 2017
- How Marketing Created Rituals
- Promise Less, Profit More
- Zombie Brands
- When Marketers Lie
- Small Move, Big Gain
- Words Invented By Marketers
- Tourism Marketing (Repeat – Season IV)
- Movie Merchandising
- Achilles Heel Advertising: Repositioning The Competition
- Live and Let Buy: Where You Live Dictates What You Purchase
- Liar For Hire: And Other Strange Service Companies
- Sue Me Sue You Blues: Famous Advertising Lawsuits (Repeat – Season IV)
- Bouncing Back: How Marketers Survive Debacles
- World’s Oldest Brands
- Business As Unusual: The World of B2B Advertising
- Brand Envy (2016)
- Selling Yourself: The Art of Personal Branding (Repeat – Season IV)
- Strange Bedfellows: Advertising & Porn – Part I
- Strange Bedfellows: Advertising & Porn – Part II
- Radio Still Makes Waves
- Persuasive Perks: The World of Loyalty Programs
- Bookmarks (2016)
- When Madison Avenue Met Broadway: The World of Industrial Musicals
- Commercial Parodies
- Ask Terry (2016)
- Strange Brands
- Controversy Advertising
- Selling Ugly
- Selling The Moon – Part I
- Selling The Moon – Part II
- Marketing Hit Songs
- Sunny With A Chance of Mouse Traps: How Weather Affects Marketing (Repeat – Season III)
- For Your Consideration: The Hollywood Oscar Campaigns The Public Never Sees
- Geography As Branding
- The Sharing Economy
- Giftvertising
- Nudge: The Persuasive Power of Whispers (Repeat – Season III)
- The Marketing Innovations Episode
- Limited Edition Brands
- Tourism Marketing
- Brand Envy (2015)
- Show Me The Money: The World of Product Placement
- Elevator Pitches (Repeat – Season III)
- Even In The Dark: How Packaging Persuades You To Buy
- Sue Me, Sue You Blues: Famous Advertising Lawsuits
- Bookmarks
- The Internet of (Marketing) Things
- Brand Envy (2015) (Repeat – Season IV)
- Selling Yourself: The Art of Personal Branding
- Ask Terry
- Looking Out For #1
- The Psychology of Price
- Cause Marketing
- Marketing Rock ‘N Roll – Part I
- Marketing Rock ‘N Roll – Part II
- Marketing The Olympics
- Ambush Marketing
- Radio Is Dead: Long Live Radio (Repeat – Season II)
- Have It Your Way: How Mass Customization Is Changing Marketing
- Viral Videos
- Advertising Alumni
- Sunny With A Chance of Mousetraps: How Weather Affects Marketing
- Tales of Customer Service (Repeat – Season II)
- Elevator Pitches
- Terry’s Bookshelf
- Brand Envy (2014)
- Nudge: The Persuasive Power of Whispers
- Game Shows As Marketing (Repeat – Season II)
- When Founders Are The Face of The Company
- Selling Death
- 21st Century Brands
- Looking Out for #1 (Repeat – Season III)
- Satisfaction Guaranteed
- When Brands Mock Other Brands
- Dear Terry
- Shame: The Secret Tool of Marketing
- A Prize In Every Box: Premiums, toys and Box-Tops
- Timing Is Everything
- Radio is Dead: Long Live Radio
- Buy Less: How Some Companies Profit By Asking You To Spend Less
- Look What They’ve Done To My Song, Ma
- Colour Schemes: How Colours Make Us Buy (Repeat – Season I)
- Coming Soon: The Art of The Movie Trailer
- Marketing Stunts
- Billion Dollar Brands
- Tales of Customer Service
- Selling Danger
- Hyper-Targeting: How Brands Track You Online (Repeat – Season I)
- Famous Marketing Blunders
- Game Shows As Marketing
- Loss Leaders: How Companies Profit By Losing Money
- Brand Envy
- It’s The Little Things (Repeat – Season I)
- Nothing In Common: How Hollywood Portrays Ad People
- Real Time Advertising
- Nobody’s Dead Anymore: Marketing Deceased Celebrities
- Shame: The Secret Tool of Marketing (Repeat – Season II)
- Trust In Advertising
- This I Know
- Dear Terry
- A New BRIC In The Wall
- Men Are From Sears: Women Are From Bloomingdale’s
- Voices of Influence
- Great Brands That Never Advertise
- Getting Personal In The Classified Ads
- Big Chill Marketing: The Influence of Music
- The Marketing Genius of Steve Jobs – Part I
- The Marketing Genius of Steve Jobs – Part II
- Movie Marketing
- Marketing In A Crisis
- Accidental Brands
- Handcuffed By Brand Image
- When Big Brands Houdini
- Mascots
- Charlie Bit My Ad: When Advertising Works Too Well
- Sex In Advertising
- Hyper-Targeting
- Colour Schemes: How Colours Make You Buy
- Brand Envy
- When Brands Apologize: Sorry Seems To Be The Smartest Word
- Books, Books, Books
- LGBT Advertising
- It’s The Little Things
- Striking Images: Matchbook Advertising
- Dear Terry
- Green Marketing
- Luxury Advertising
- Candid Commercials
- Speed Bumps
- Marketing Pioneers
- Even More Remarkable Brands
- Marketing The Unpleasant (Repeat – Season IV)
- AOP Goes To The Movies
- The Commercials You Grew Up With
- Burn The Boats
- Pitchmen (Repeat – Season IV)
- Mad Women
- Dynamic Duos: The Famous Partnerships In Advertising
- Three Foot Marketing
- All Things Being Equal: Parity Products (Repeat – Season IV)
- The Happy Homemaker: How Advertising Invented The Housewife (Part One)
- The Happy Homemaker: How Advertising Invented The Housewife (Part Two)
- Genericide: When A Brand Name Becomes Generic
- Opportunism (Repeat – Season IV)
- The Sound of Persuasion
- Ageism In Advertising
- Slogans (Repeat – Season IV)
- Terry’s Book Club
- Diversity In Advertising
- Ask Terry Again
- Marketing The Unpleasant
- Buzz
- Pitchmen
- Heroes & Villains
- Persuasion Fail
- Slogans
- Categories
- Are People Idiots?
- Being There: Selling Experiences
- Marketing The Unpleasant (Repeat – Season IV)
- All Things Being Equal: Parity Products
- Context
- Buzz (Repeat – Season IV)
- Oddballs: Singular Campaigns
- Privacy
- Pitchmen (Repeat – Season IV)
- Where Power Resides
- Profiles In Marketing Courage
- Negative Advertising
- Opportunism
- A Few More Remarkable Brands
- Ask Terry Some More
- Mad Men
- A Taste For Blood: Direct Marketing
- Recession Marketing
- Nasty Is The New Nice
- Rethink The Shark
- According To Hoyle
- The Human Face of Persuasion (Repeat – Season I)
- Breaking The Contract (Repeat – Season I)
- Commandeering Holidays
- Great Canadian Campaigns
- Repetition, Repetition, Repetition
- Sun Tzu and The Art of Persuasion
- A Taste For Blood: Direct Marketing (Repeat – Season II)
- Selling God
- Brand Loyalty
- Big and Small
- Recession Marketing (Repeat – Season III)
- The Real Deal: Authenticity
- The Myths of Persuasion
- Marketing The Invisible
- Great Canadian Campaigns (Repeat – Season III)
- Entertainment Or Nothing
- The Museum of Persuasion
- Urban Legends
- Embracing New Media
- Ask Terry
- There’s Never A Marques of Queensbury Around When You Need One
- The Sport of Persuasion
- Old Media, New Media, Borrowed Media, Blue Media
- Branding The News
- Guerrillas In Our Midst (Repeat – Season I)
- Everything I Need To Know About Life I Learned From Agency Pitches
- Leaving Your Mark
- 23 Things I’d Like To change About Advertising
- Reviving The Brand
- The Trouble With Big
- Royal Jelly
- Advertisers As Censors
- Award In Edgewise (Repeat – Season I)
- Crowd Control
- The Strategy of Persuasion
- In Defence of Advertising
- It’s The Insight, Stupid (Repeat – Season I)
- Emotion
- The Myth of Mass Marketing
- Selling War
- Frontiers and Boundaries (Repeat – Season I)
- Advertising As The New Sugar Daddy
- Persuasion In The Niches
- Six Remarkable Brands — Oprah Winfrey, The Beatles, Muhammad Ali, Lego, Las Vegas and The Polar Bear
- Clutter
- The Language of Persuasion
- Rinse and Repeat
- Yoots – Youth Marketing
- The Lesson of Clark Gable’s Undershirt
- The Long and Short of It
- Breaking The Contract
- The Rise and Fall and Rise of Branded Entertainment
- The Human Face of Persuasion
- All The World’s a Marketing Opportunity
- Walk 1.6 Kilometres In My Shoes
- Strange But True Tales of Market Research
- Love, Marriage and Sexual Tension
- Branding A Nation
- The Persuasive Power of Storytelling
- Protecting The Celebrity Brand
- Goin’ To The Show: Super Bowl Ads
- A Sense of Persuasion
- Leaving Your Mark
- The YouTube Revolution
- By Any Other Name
- Guerrillas In Our Midst
- Frontiers and Boundaries
- Reviving The Brand
- It’s The Insight, Stupid
- Award in Edgewise
- The Wall of Cynicism
- The Future of Persuasion
- Do This Or Die
- When Ads Go Too Far
- So You Want to Be a Voice Actor
- Celebrities In Advertising
- A Brief History of Advertising
- The Science of Advertising
- David and Goliath Ad Stories
- Music in Advertising
- The Sparhawk Beer Story (AKA “From Suits to Nuts”)
- The Five Men Who Invented My Job
- The Wrath of Cannes
- Humour in Ads
- Art of the PSA
- In Radio, You Are the Art Director
- Greatest Beer Ads
- International Ads – A Look Around The World
- The Importance of Branding
- Using Music as a Character
- Advocacy Ads – Selling an Idea, Not a Product
- Moments – Moments That Made Commercials Great
- Campaigns
- Good Briefs, Bad Briefs, Ugly Briefs
- The Great Debate – Creative vs Effective
- Great Writing
- Fashions in Ad Creative – Trends
- Desert Island Reel – Terry’s Favourite Spots of All Time
Under the Influence Returns to the Airwaves January 2, 2020
CBC Radio One:
Thursdays at 11:30am
Saturdays at 11:30am
WBEZ Chicago
Saturdays at 6:30am (yawn)
Podcast
A new podcast drops every Wednesday at midnight, the first of the season being Jan 1.
Listen on your favourite Podcast app, including:
Or, listen on demand via the CBC website or the CBC Listen app.
Fun Facts
- We currently have over a million radio listeners per week in Canada.
- …and over 35 million podcast downloads since 2012.
- We create three versions of each episode:
1. CBC/WBEZ Chicago
2. Podcast for iTunes
3. Sirius Satellite Radio - It takes 12 hours to record and mix each 27 minute episode.
- There are four researchers on the team. One researcher is assigned per episode. The research for each show is split between Terry and that researcher.
- Each episode requires 30-40 hours of research.
- It takes Terry three days to write an episode.
- We are always juggling four episodes: One is being researched, one is being written, one is being recorded, and one is being revised for air.
- 24 original episodes are aired each season. Two episodes per season are encore broadcasts of popular episodes from previous seasons.
- From our first season in 2005 to the end of the 2018 season, we will have produced 296 episodes (O’Reilly on Advertising + Age of Persuasion + Under The Influence)
- One podcast (Unforeseen Circumstances: How Companies Are Affected By Chance) was recorded in front of a live studio audience.
- There are no interviews on our radio show, except one single episode titled: “So You Want To Be A Voice Actor” from O’Reilly on Advertising, Episode 2.
- A free Digital Box Set of the Under the Influence archives is now available wherever you download your podcasts.
- Under The Influence is produced by the Apostrophe Podcast Company. It is a family business.