Podcast Summary
Podcast: Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly
Episode: Billboards Are Always In Bloom
Date: November 1, 2025
Host: Terry O’Reilly
Network: Apostrophe Podcast Network
Overview
In this engaging episode, Terry O’Reilly takes listeners on a creative journey through the history, evolution, and brilliant executions of billboard advertising. From hand-painted rock 'n' roll spectacles to tiny digital surprises and dramatic social commentary, O’Reilly highlights how billboards—always visible, always in bloom—remain a potent, evolving force in marketing. The episode blends humorous anecdotes, historical context, and modern innovations, showing why billboards continue to capture imaginations and spark conversation.
Key Discussion Points & Insights
1. The Beginnings: Entertaining the Mundane Through Creativity
- The Master Singers & Road Signs
- In the 1960s, the British group Master Singers set the UK’s ‘Highway Code’ (road signs) to Anglican chants, blending the ordinary with the unexpected for comedic effect.
- Legendary producer George Martin (of Beatles fame) recorded the “Highway Code” song, which charted, outselling the Kinks and Bob Dylan at one point.
- Quote: “The idea of marrying mundane words with deeply harmonious church chants was highly entertaining.” — Terry O’Reilly [03:35]
- Link to Marketing: Road Signs & Billboards
- O’Reilly connects this creative recontextualizing of road signage to how advertising leverages the billboard’s public visibility.
2. The Art of the Billboard: Big Ideas, Few Words
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Copywriting Challenges
- Billboards demand brevity: seven words or less, communicating a message to fleeting drivers.
- Most billboards fail due to poor design, clutter, and weak ideas.
- Quote: “Most billboards are terrible... and that's a shame, because billboards offer big opportunities.” — Terry O’Reilly [08:32]
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Rock and Roll Billboards: Creative Milestones
- The Doors (1967): First hand-painted rock album billboard on Sunset Boulevard, capturing attention with scale and artistry.
- Beatles’ Abbey Road: Billboard with heads protruding above, fueling the ‘Paul is Dead’ rumor when McCartney’s went missing.
- Memorable anecdote: “Paul McCartney’s head went missing one night... fueled even more record sales.”
- ELO’s “Out of the Blue” Spaceship: $50,000 3D plexiglass installation.
- Pink Floyd’s The Wall: Billboard revealed over time as bricks were removed, generating buzz.
3. Creative Breakthroughs in Modern Billboard Campaigns
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Dole’s Nutritional Ink Posters
- Posters printed using juice from real fruit, placed next to junk food vendors in the UK.
- Quote: “Every word on this poster contains more vitamin C and A than the chocolate bars in that vending machine.” — Terry O’Reilly [12:39]
- Posters printed using juice from real fruit, placed next to junk food vendors in the UK.
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British Airways’ Real-Time Digital Billboard
- Activated by actual BA planes passing overhead; child on screen points at the plane, displays flight info and deals.
- Quote: “It tapped into that longing we all have when we see a plane, wondering where it’s headed...”— Terry O’Reilly [15:07]
- Timestamp: [12:54–15:07]
- Activated by actual BA planes passing overhead; child on screen points at the plane, displays flight info and deals.
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Miniaturization & Interactive Billboards: Skoda
- Tiny digital billboards rigged in parking spots; movement triggers signage displayed on dashboard cameras.
- Quote: “They just wanted to thank their competitors for the free ad space.” — Skoda spokesperson [17:45]
- Tiny digital billboards rigged in parking spots; movement triggers signage displayed on dashboard cameras.
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Invisible Billboards: Audi H-Tron
- Fog machines projected car images and messages onto clouds of steam: “...the image would linger in the air for a minute... then disappear into the night, leaving nothing behind but water vapor.” [18:30]
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Oreo’s Digital Eclipse (2015 UK Solar Eclipse)
- Digital billboards synched with real-time astronomical data to simulate an eclipse with Oreo halves, compensating for UK’s cloudy weather.
- Quote: “Oreo had managed to give the UK the eclipse that Mother Nature had denied them.” — Terry O’Reilly [20:30]
- Resulted in a 59% year-over-year sales jump.
- Digital billboards synched with real-time astronomical data to simulate an eclipse with Oreo halves, compensating for UK’s cloudy weather.
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Dove’s Injectable Billboard
- Huge billboard of a teen girl, constructed entirely from colored syringes, raising awareness of cosmetic injections among teens.
- Quote: “Dove’s injectable billboard brought attention to the toxic beauty issue by actually visualizing it.” — Terry O’Reilly [23:45]
- Shocking visual drove social sharing and engagement with Dove’s self-esteem-building resources.
- Huge billboard of a teen girl, constructed entirely from colored syringes, raising awareness of cosmetic injections among teens.
4. The Episode’s Title: Muffins Always in Bloom
- Blum Supermarkets’ Fallen Muffin Billboard
- Boone Oakley ad agency created a billboard for jumbo muffins; staged a “fallen muffin” crushing a car parked below.
- Used real props, including a junkyard Kia outfitted with a for-sale sign and voicemail number to complete the illusion and tease passersby.
- Unexpected challenges: the Kia was too sturdy due to a safety I-beam, requiring a saw to collapse the roof even after multiple attempts.
- Quote (humorous): “It was slowly turning into a commercial for Kia.” — Terry O’Reilly [26:30]
- Public reaction, press attention, and even voicemails about the “accident” made it viral.
- Quote: “A car that was innocently parked under the billboard. Now that would be memorable.” — Terry O’Reilly [25:52]
Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments
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On Billboard Brevity:
“As a rule, a billboard idea has to be seven words or less.”—Terry O’Reilly [08:26] -
On Billboard Creativity:
“A thousand people passing a billboard is not an audience of a thousand. The quality of the idea determines the audience.” —Terry O’Reilly [31:36] -
On Electronic Engagement:
“Digital technology has revolutionized billboard advertising, opening up possibilities that were previously unimaginable.” —Terry O’Reilly [32:45] -
On Oreos and Human Nature (episode close):
“Fun fact, when it comes to Oreos, women are more likely to twist them apart. Men tend to pull. And that’s how the cookie crumbles.” —Terry O’Reilly [33:19]
Key Timestamps
- 03:15 — Master Singers, George Martin, and highway code as music
- 08:12 — Challenges of writing for billboards; the “seven words” rule
- 09:45–12:50 — Rise of supremely creative, large-scale rock billboards
- 13:30 — Dole’s vitamin C posters with fruit-ink
- 14:50 — British Airways’ real-time, plane-tracking digital boards
- 17:45 — Skoda’s tiny interactive billboards
- 18:30 — Audi’s fog-projected disappearing boards
- 20:00 — Oreo’s digital lunar eclipse campaign
- 22:30 — Dove’s injectable billboard
- 25:52 — Boone Oakley’s dropping muffin billboard for Blum Supermarkets
- 31:36 — Reflections on creativity and the future of billboards
Concluding Themes
- Billboards, whether massive or minuscule, analog or digital, succeed only through unmissable creativity and concise storytelling.
- While technology opens new avenues, the core challenge remains: how to make people care about a message with just a few fleeting seconds.
- Billboards are both a reflection of pop culture and a catalyst for conversation—and in Terry O’Reilly’s words, they are “always in bloom.”
Recommended Next Listen:
If you enjoyed this creative exploration, check out “Come Fly With Me: Airports are Now Brands” (Season 9, Episode 10) in the Under the Influence archives.
