Age of persuasion will begin again on Monday, January 4, 2010.

The ‘ol Age of Persuasion mailbag has been packed a little too full lately. So this week- in the season finale- Terry O’Reilly dedicates an entire show to answering your questions about advertising and marketing. How do you pitch your great ad idea to a major brand? Will product placement replace conventional advertising? What’s an eco-friendly way of removing carpenter bees from the back deck? Okay, Terry has some of the answers. At least he’ll take his best swing at your pitches, this week on The Age of Persuasion.

When the telephone was first invented, a debate arose: not over the invention itself, but over what to say when answering it. In time, the word “hello” prevailed. As Terry O’Reilly observes, the creation of each new medium brings with it a learning curve, as its strengths are discovered, and its ‘language invented. Terry explores ways marketers and advertisers have struggled with each new medium: how early radio was treated as ‘print read aloud’, and how early TV was ‘Radio with pictures’. And he’ll show how, only now, marketers are beginning to speak the new ‘language’ of the Internet.

Bulletin… bulletin… bulletin… this just in… the actor who played “Mikey” in the Life Cereal Ads did not die as result of consuming pop rocks and cola (or from any other cause). Just as not-dead is Jared Fogel, spokesman for Subway restaurants. A tooth will not dissolve when left in Coca Cola overnight. And Pepsi did not have to give a Harrier Jet to a business student who sued them over a “Pepsi Points” TV ad in the 90’s. Join Terry O’Reilly around the campfire as he explores Urban Legends surrounding advertising. He’ll debunk a few of the howlers, and tell stories of a few that are true.

It’s no secret that entertaining messages attract audiences. But today, as advertisers, government agencies, business and educators are learning- entertainment is fast becoming the only way to reach an audience. Terry O’Reilly explains how all kinds of modern messages are being wrapped in entertainment, or are tied to engaging ideas. He’ll explain how that is driving some unlikely players- including the Pope, the Queen, major corporations and government ministries, to such entertainment-skewed media as YouTube

I think this podcast was mentioned by Terry O’Reilly on the great program, The Sound of Young America.

Be sure to check out the entire interview.

In a society whose only real knowledge of the ad business ranges from Darren Stephens in Bewitched to Don Draper in Mad Men, a few misconceptions are bound to crop up. This week, Terry O’Reilly tackles some common myths surrounding the ad business, including the Myth that advertising steers behaviours and trends, the myth that any publicity is good publicity, and the myth that advertising is about spontaneous ideas.

The secret to Tiger Woods’ success as a golfer is that he can make a golf ball soar, spin, curve- heck, he can make it deal cards if he wants to. But what’s the secret to Tiger Woods as a brand? It’s authenticity. This week Terry O’Reilly explains the importance of a brand living up to its promise- of actually being everything it says it is. Terry will even summon the courage to tell of his riveting childhood disillusionment after ordering a family of Sea Monkeys from a comic book.

For more than a century, advertisers have fallen to the lure of hyperbole: over-inflating the importance of their brand. They made cheap currency of claims such as bigger, faster, stronger, better-tasting, harder-working, brighter, softer, newer, more-economical and longer-lasting. As Terry O’Reilly points out, some very small help is on the way. A newer, better, smarter generation of advertisers are finding ways to leverage the ’smallness’ of their brand, and still get noticed without hyperbole.

Brand loyalty is the greatest prize a marketer can earn. Yet nowadays, it’s increasingly rare. This week, Terry O’Reilly explains the tangible- and intangible process of forming loyalties between brands and customers: and what goes into that ‘gut’ feeling that makes people reach for one brand over another, when all else is equal. He’ll explain how brands such as Apple and Harley Davidson cultivated vast tribes of loyal followers, and how it is that some brands prompt disloyalty.

This week Terry O’Reilly marches you boldly where the angels of marketing fear to tread: he looks at the delicate, always-controversial relationship between faith and advertising. He’ll look into the controversy surrounding recent bus ads, which read “There Probably Is No God. So Stop Worrying and Enjoy Your Life.” And he’ll explain why not all people of faith embrace the marketing tactics popular in some of today’s churches.

What does modern advertising and marketing have to do with a 25 hundred-year-old military theorist? Terry O’Reilly is so glad you asked. This week he examines the ancient bamboo scrolls of Sun Tzu- author of The Art of War, and shows how modern marketers- including an upstart vodka and a revolutionary hair colouring brand- have gleaned valuable lessons from Sun Tzu’s writings.

Is advertising advertising advertising all about repetition repetition repetition? This week, Terry O’Reilly examines the role ‘frequency’ plays in ad messages. He’ll explain how many times you are meant to see or hear an ad in a given week, and why some campaigns seem to bombard you more than others. He’ll also explain how the creative content is what helps some ads run successfully for years, and causes others to wear out their welcome almost immediately.

There’s no “Made in Canada” label on ad campaigns: but Terry O’Reilly often wishes there were. This week he proudly tells the story of some Made-in-Canada success stories. They’re ad campaigns with maple syrup in their veins; how an idea resurrected from a wastebasket put one retail chain on the map; how a campaign that ran on TV just six times is still talked about, nearly four decades later. And how a three-word ad phrase brought a nation to its feet.

Is the meaning of major holidays- from Easter and Passover to Christmas and Ramadan- becoming lost in a sea of holiday marketing? This week Terry O’Reilly explains why advertisers don’t dare ignore the opportunities presented by holidays. Just as marketing has come to dominate major Christian holidays, Terry explains how, in a sense, the baton has been passed: it was the church, after all, that commandeered many of its holidays from pagan traditions.

Monday, 16 February 2009 11:30 am and Saturday 21 February 2009 4:30 pm
(Originally aired October 19, 2006)

When Advertisers take our time and attention, shouldn’t they give something back? Terry O’Reilly thinks so. This week Terry examines the unwritten “contract” forged between Advertisers and audiences more than 80 years ago. He’ll tell the story of ad giant Albert Lasker, who, in the 1920’s, pioneered the idea of sponsor-driven broadcasts. You’ll discover why an understanding of the contract makes you a better consumer, and why today’s advertisers violate the contract at their peril.

Originally aired November, 2006

Hooda thunkit: for all their flow charts and profit projections, Marketers are re-discovering the true “secret weapon” of persuasion: people. In this episode from Season One of the Age of Persuasion, Terry explains the value of putting a “human face” to a brand: from the fictional Aunt Jemima to the very real Chef Boyardee. And how Radio uses the power of the human voice to say things about a brand… without saying them.

Are there “rules” for creating great ads? This week, Terry O’Reilly dusts off the Great Rulebook of Creative Advertising and shares some of its immutable laws, and plays successful ads that… well… mute them. He’s show how ‘rules’ and conventions in ad creative change with time. And he’ll share a few ideas he’s scribbled in the book over the years, as he explains why- as he’s fond of saying- “There are no rules in advertising. Only sins.”

There’s an old marketing axiom: “never try to change people’s minds”. Yet massive changes in public attitudes happen constantly: attitudes about the role of women, about racial equality, about smoking, using seatbelts, and attitudes about gay/lesbian/bi & transsexual lifestyles. This week Terry O’Reilly examines the role advertising plays when society’s attitudes change- how it can help sustains old thinking, or work as a force to sanctify new thinking.

Is it just us, or has the tone of advertising gotten colder, nastier, more rude? This week Terry O’Reilly shows how the tone of advertising is taking on a new meanness. The humour of some campaigns is taking on a decidedly sharp edge. Broadcast ads are becoming more heavily laden with violence and bodily functions. Ad copy is developing a case of potty-mouth. We’ll trace some of the sources of this trend, and explain why the earnest, innocent ad copy of the 50’s just won’t cut it today.

Strange things happen in the Age of Persuasion during an economic downturn. As Terry O’Reilly observes, many advertisers abandon their sense of humour, and often- mistakenly- turn to aggressive, desperate hard sell. Meanwhile, some brands, such as Wal-Mart, McDonald’s and SPAM, actually thrive. And a few, courageous marketers know that in tough times, great marketing is counter-intuitive. Terry explains why.

There’s a lot more to Direct Marketing than “ShamWow”, and Ginsu knives, and Veg-O-Matics. On the season premiere of The Age of Persuasion, Terry O’Reilly looks at the changing craft of Direct Marketing- and explains why ad giant David Ogilvy called it his “first love and secret weapon”. Terry will track the history of Direct Marketing from Eaton’s catalogues to “amazing” TV offers to online banner ads.

We are very pleased to announce that the new season of The Age of Persuasion debuts on Monday, January 5th, 2009 at 11:30 a.m. Monday episodes will be repeated Saturdays at 4:30 p.m. We are, in effect, sharing this season with our friends at White Coat, Black Art, and will adopt their current time slots. Meanwhile, we are running repeat programs in some parts of Canada

- CBC Age of Persuasion  blog

Broadcast Date: Aug 2, 2008 (Originally Aired June 21, 2007)

Broadcast Date: July 19, 2008 (Originally Aired May 31, 2007)

Broadcast Date: July 12, 2008 (Originally Aired March 8, 2007)

Broadcast Date: July 5, 2008 (Originally Aired March 3, 2007)

First aired: 19 October 2006

Early in our first season, Terry posed a question: when Advertisers take our time and attention, shouldn’t they give something back? In “Breaking the Contract” Terry examines the unwritten agreement forged between Advertisers and audiences more than 80 years ago. He’ll tell the story of “contact” pioneer Albert Lasker, and explain why today’s advertisers break that contract at their peril.

Broadcast Date: June 28, 2008 ( Originally Aired February 8th, 2007)

All the things that capture your eye- and you imagination- in the world around you have one thing in common: they’re all brands. In the Age of Persuasion season finale, Terry O’Reilly examines six remarkable brands- and not just ‘brands’ in the consumer sense. Among them: a media icon, an athlete, a rock & roll band, a toy, a city, and a 500-kilogram land mammal. He’ll explain the brand strength behind each, and explore what makes them remarkable. By studying them, Terry explains how this can deepen our understanding of how, and why, people prioritize some things over others.

Times ‘wuz that the goal of any marketer was to sell “big” brands to the widest possible audience. This week, Terry O’Reilly explains how the days of “one size fits all” brands are vanishing; replaced by specifically targeted “niche” brands. He’ll trace this trend to the growth of “specialty” media; Gay/Lesbian/Bi radio stations, for instance, provide a platform for a new generation of “niche” marketers. He’ll also show how many of the mighty mainstream brands- such as the Model T- even the iPod- began as “niche” products.

When money runs short- more and more people are turning to advertising to pay the bills. Charities, artists, athletes, even governments and school boards are turning to “corporate partners” – offering advertising exposure in exchange for much-needed money. This week Terry O’Reilly explains how Advertisers became the “sugar daddies” of the 21st Century- and traces “sponsorship” back through the centuries.

Broadcast Date: May 31, 2008 (Originally aired in April of 2007

It’s no surprise that a lot of today’s Ads would never have aired in our parent’s time. But guess what? Many Ads from the past would never be tolerated today. This week Terry O’Reilly explains how Advertising is a kind of time capsule: reflecting the tastes and tolerances of a given time. And how quickly those tolerances can change.

A century ago, when a nation called, men came running. Today, men and women need a reason why they should wage war. This week, Terry examines the complex, changing, relationship between persuasion and war. He’ll look at ways advertisers mobilized to help Canada in two World Wars, how the impromptu “Christmas truce” of 1914 endangered the ‘idea’ of World War I, and he’ll examine and the fascinating variety of advertising approaches nations use to recruit soldiers today.

It was ad giant Fairfax Cone who said “there is no such thing as a Mass Mind. The Mass Audience is made up of individuals, and good advertising is written always from one person to another. When it is aimed at millions it rarely moves anyone.” “Mass Marketing” allows advertisers to reach millions of consumers at once- but at a cost. The greater the audience, the ‘cooler’, more distant, and less personal the relationship between marketer and consumer becomes. Terry examines the power of the sort of one-on-one selling that turned the “Fuller Brush” company from a $75 investment to a multi-million dollar empire, and he’ll show creative ways advertisers find to relate to a “mass” audience, one person at a time.

Take two baseball Hall-of-Famers- Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth. Baseball insiders lean towards Cobb as the superior all-round player, yet Ruth towers above Cobb in popular culture. Why? For the same reason brands win and lose marketing wars: victory goes to those who forge the strongest emotional connection with consumers.

This week Terry O’Reilly explains why so few advertisers use “facts” to build their brand, and why the best way to win a consumer’s business is through the heart. He’ll show how even low-interest products use emotion to build their brands, and he’ll explain how emotion has driven sales of a popular breakfast cereal for three generations.

Broadcast Date: Saturday May 3, 2008. (Originally Broadcast in April, 2007)

Bill Clinton’s electoral victory of 1992 owed much to a four word phrase created by advisor James Carville: “It’s the economy, stupid”. It wasn’t an idea, or a slogan, but an insight. Join Terry O’Reilly as shows why an insight is at the heart of modern persuasion, and how insights fuel great ideas, art, and inventions.

Broadcast date: Saturday April 26, 2008

After thirty years of hearing “I hate advertising”, Terry’s springing to the defense of his industry. Will he argue that all advertising is great? No. But he will make a case that maybe, just maybe, it doesn’t suck as much as some people like to think.

This week, Terry O’Reilly tugs on Superman’s cape, he spits in the wind; more recently he was seen inquiring as to the whereabouts of the Lone Ranger. In this surly frame of mind, Terry makes the case of the defence of advertising in modern culture. By the magic of radio, he’ll show you what the world would be like… if advertising had never been born. Then he’ll take you on a tour, and show you why an ad-free world might not be the cultural paradise some might imagine.

How did General Isaac Brock and the great chief Tecumseh capture Fort Detroit in 1812- though outnumbered nearly two-to-one? The same way today’s brands nestle themselves in your brain: strategy. This week, Terry O’Reilly examines one of the most vital- and least understood- facets of the world’s $600 billion marketing industry.

He’ll explain the strategy that changed the fortunes of the Paris Metro, how the strategy of changing one word ignited one of the continent’s fastest-growing industries; and he’ll explain why “second place” in your mind can be the best place for some brands to reside.

This week, Terry O’Reilly explores the evolving relationship between marketers and audiences, and how modern media have made audiences the product, and advertisers the buyer. While all art craves an audience: in the age of persuasion, ad-driven media exist for the purpose of procuring an audience, and delivering it to advertisers. Terry examines the business of audience research, and explains how studies of “demographics” and “psychographics”, are giving way to a new classification: social “tribes”.

(Originally aired April 26, 2007)

Try Googling the phrase “Award-Winning”. Go on; we’ll wait. See? 71 million hits. Join Terry O’Reilly – wait- the “award winning” Terry O’Reilly – as he explores the persuasive power of those two little words in our culture. He’ll play- yes- award-winning ads, and examine the self-congratulatory side of our culture.

According to author C. Edwin Baker, “Advertisers, not governments, are the primary censors of media content… today.” Terry O’Reilly respectfully disagrees – and this week he’ll explain why. He’ll review the long relationship between sponsorship and censorship – from early Radio, to Hitchcock’s Psycho, through the more recent woes of radio jock Don Imus. Do advertisers really decide what you should see, hear, or think? And if they don’t – who does?

We’ll review the decision of Lowe’s Home Building Centres to pull their sponsorship of “Big Brother 9″ after a remark about “retards” by one of the contestants. We’ll talk about Ed Sullivan refusing to televise Elvis’s hips, his curbing of the Stones’ lyrics for “Let’s Spend the Night Together”, and his attempt to soften the Doors’ “Light My Fire”.

In the Age of Persuasion, as in all things, some are more equal than others. This week, Terry O’Reilly looks at a handful of gifted individuals- and singular ad agencies- who have done more than change advertising- they’ve changed popular culture. They are the savants, the gifted, the elect- those with ‘royal jelly’. And they cause a $600 billion industry to un-learn everything it had learned about the craft of persuasion.

In our grandparent’s time, “big” was a good thing. “Biggest” was what every brand wanted to be when it grew up; the biggest corporations were benevolent captains of industry. Today, “big” is a curse. The biggest brands become the targets of critical books and documentaries, anti-globalization protests and YouTube ridicule. This week, Terry O’Reilly examines the growing hostility directed at the world’s top brands, and how some are finding ingenious ways to be both big and lovable.

Broadcast Date: March 8, 2008 (Originally aired April 14, 2007)

This week Terry O’Reilly explores ways marketers breathe new life into dying brands. He’ll show you how brands such as Special ‘K’ have hiked sales- not by changing their product, but by changing the ‘idea’ of their product. Then he’ll show you how Hollywood celebrities have used the same principle to re-invent- and resurrect- their careers.

This week, on The Age of Persuasion, Terry O’Reilly shares 23- ‘count ‘em- things he’s like to change about advertising. Maybe his new shoes are too tight. Or he needs a little more fibre in his diet. Perhaps a switch to decaf would do the trick. Whatever the reason, Terry shares a few long-harboured gripes about advertising, from telemarketers, to purveyors of junk mail, to hard-sell screamers, to anyone who’s ever inflicted a customer with the recorded words: “your call is important to us”.

Broadcast Date February 23, 2008 (Originally aired February 15, 2007)

The Prime Minister has one. So do Microsoft, the CBC, and the Pope. They’ve all got a form of logo: a visual symbol, trademark or emblem that distinguishes who they are. Join Terry as he tells the stories behind some of the great logos and trademarks, and shows how today’s brand innovators are “translating” them into sound and even attitude.

It’s among the greatest, most inspired, most creative, most spectacular work done in marketing… yet few ever see it. Every year, Ad agencies pull out all the stops to ‘pitch’ their services to prospective clients. This week, Terry O’Reilly takes you inside the boardrooms to share some of the Ad industry’s best, most remarkable, and most disastrous ‘pitch’ stories, and gleans from them a surprisingly handy set of life-lessons.

Broadcast Date: February 9, 2008 (Originally aired 29 March, 2007)

Not long ago, the city of Boston was paralysed by a guerrilla marketing stunt: the placement of electronic signs with countdown clocks. Even more surprising was that the stunt was staged by a multi-billion dollar media empire. This week Terry O’Reilly examines why today’s biggest marketers are adopting street-level guerrilla marketing tactics. And he’ll introduce you to early guerrilla marketing pioneers; among them: Thomas Edison and Harry Houdini.

News is big business. This week, Terry O’Reilly traces the origins of today’s news packaging.

Here’s a headline you’ll never, ever see in your daily paper: “Nothing Happened”. Terry O’Reilly describes the ugly circle that drives modern newsgathering: how reporting takes money, how the need from money means attracting advertisers, how pleasing advertisers requires a vast audience, and how the need for a vast audience affects news content, and the way it’s presented.

He explores the cult of personality that drives TV newscasts, and traces the history of newsgathering to a handful of distance runners in ancient Greece.

Terry O’Reilly tracks a seismic shift in the marketing world: the fall of Television as the “flagship” ad medium, and the rise of a radical new trend: marketing through ideas.

Instead of using advertising to reach teenage males, Burger King created its own series of Xbox 360 games, featuring its “King” character. After two million sales in just five weeks, Burger King equates the number of “brand impressions” to that of 13 Super Bowl ads.

When General Electric wanted to promote its brand at the Beijing Olympics, the tactic it chose was infrastructure. Instead of expensive Olympic advertising, GE helped build a water filtration plant, through which it hopes its brand will resonate for years.

Believe it or not, there was once a time when sports and marketing slept in separate beds. Enter C.C. “Cash & Carry” Pyle, the first modern sports agent.

This week, Terry O’Reilly explains how Pyle changed sports forever, and why marketers so eagerly assume the expense, and the risk, of putting their product in the hands of a star athlete. Then, he’ll give you a peek at the marketing playbook, and show you what distinguishes a ‘star’ from a ‘superstar’.

In our season premiere, Terry explores the long history of “attack ads” and political dirty tricks, and shows how changing media have changed the nature of election campaigns, from a discussion of issues to an assessment of personalities.

Major campaign ads are assembled by hand-picked “dream teams” comprised of many of the greatest creative minds in the business. Yet somehow these campaigns invariably descend into a paint-by-numbers litany of personal attacks and stratospheric promises.

To voters they’re a blight, but to broadcasters, they’re manna from heaven: prompting hefty airtime buys from warring parties, and fueling news and political panel shows (who respond in kind: giving free airtime to the more incendiary ads.)