Terry O'Reilly (0:01)

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Plus NordicLub members enjoy free two day shipping on thousands of items in select areas. Shop today in stores and@nordstrom.com this is an Apostrophe podcast production. We're going to show you our big new Studebaker Mamma Mia. That's a spicy meatball. What love doesn't conquer Alka Seltzer will What a relief you're under the influence with Terry O'Reilly. One day, a cute little Yorkshire terrier that belonged to a family named Witherspoon went missing. The family scoured the neighborhood but no doggie. They were devastated. Then the Witherspoons made a shocking discovery. Footage from their doorbell camera showed a woman with dyed red hair creeping onto their front porch, offering their dog a treat, then scooping him up and running away. Not long after, the family got a menacing phone text with a video of their little Yorkie looking scared in a cage. The text demanded $1,200 ransom. According to reports, dog nappings of purebreds have increased 30% recently as a lucrative resale market has popped up. Some of those dog nappings were violent. Lady Gaga's dog walker was shot in Los Angeles, and her two French bulldogs were stolen. The Witherspoons filed a police report, but detectives were busy on human cases. So Mrs. Witherspoon told a television reporter about the ransom demand, and the story was broadcast on the news that night. A man named Rick Machamer saw the story. He had a very particular set of skills. Machamer had served in Iraq and and was an expert at tracking down Al Qaeda leaders. So he contacted the Witherspoons and offered his help. The family sent Machamer the doorbell video and the dog napper's phone number from the ransom text. The number, of course, was unregistered. So Machamer used software to extract geolocation data from the video the dog napper sent of the Yorkie in the cage. But none existed. Next. Since the perpetrator had dyed red hair, he searched hair salons near the Witherspoons, looking for photos of customers or staff. But there were no matches. Then Machamer thought of something. He put the dog napper's phone number into his iPhone contacts, which was linked to his Instagram account. He knew Instagram would likely recommend he follow any accounts, but associated with that number, sure enough, Instagram offered up a profile. A body piercing business not far from the Witherspoons home. The account had a post linking to the owner's personal Instagram account. On that account, there was one photo of a home, and the address was clear when Machamer alerted the Witherspoons. And they said they had noticed that the lost dog flyers they had posted near that address had been torn down. The family gave that information to the police. Two days later, a detective called to say, we have your dog. We're on the way. The perpetrator was charged with theft and extortion. Machamer's particular set of skills had found the furry little needle in the haystack. And one scared little Yorkshire terrier was reunited with one very Happy family. Pets aren't just pets. They are a part of the family. So pet owners spend a lot of money on their furry friends. It has become a massive marketing category. In North America alone, the pet product industry is worth close to $160 billion per year. Growing. How the pet industry markets to pet owners is very creative. And the ads that try to convince people to adopt shelter animals are even more inventive. You're under the influence. More than half of all Canadians own at least one pet. We collectively spend about $7 billion on our pets every year, and that figure is going up. Dog food is the fastest growing item on the list. It costs about $4,000 a year to own a dog, roughly half that to own a cat. And while cats are less expensive to own, they eat less and more, require less trips to the vet. The first year of a kitten's life can cost Canadians about $1,900. Dental cleanings for cats alone can cost around 740 bucks per year. In the States, 66% of households own pets. And Americans spend about $150 billion on their furry and feathered friends. It's not cheap to own a pet these days, and there is a lot of profit to be made selling pet supplies. There are many categories of pet related pet food, pet gear, pet toys, pet supplements, pet clothes, pet grooming, pet insurance, and pet vet bills. It can be a lot, but the companionship pets offer can be priceless. Here's an amusing campaign from Pedigree in New Zealand. The campaign is titled the Child Replacement Program. The insight that fueled the campaign was that when kids move out of the house, parents can feel a void. So Pedigree decided to use humor, saying that when the kids move out, let a dog move in. The commercials were very amusing. In one, a voiceover reminisces about an old tree house that was built by dad and son. You built this tree house with your father for one summer. You measured and he cut, he spoke and you listened to, and together you turned a tree into something that would mean so much more today. It stands as a symbol of the enduring love. At that moment, dad charges over and kicks one of the rungs on the treehouse ladder, breaking it off. Then he picks it up and plays catch with his new dog. Go on, mate. Go get it. Yes. Yeah. Go on. Go on. The commercial ends with a framed photo of a son being knocked over and a photo of a dog taking its place. The Pedigree Child Replacement Program, when they move out, move on, adopt a dog. It's a Funny campaign with tongue planted firmly in cheek. While Pedigree benefits from having more people own more dogs, the company also has a stated mission to convince more people to to adopt dogs from shelters. The campaign also had another element, a website that connects dogs that need homes with homes that need dogs. Empty Nesters could type in the characteristics of their son or daughter who has left home and the website would try and find a dog with those same basic characteristics. Active, lazy, fun, quiet, big or small would Whatever the traits, Pedigree would link an appropriate shelter dog to a new home. The Results it was New Zealand's most successful adoption drive in 15 years. There was an 824% increase in dog adoption inquiries in the first six weeks of the campaign. There were more inquiries than in the last two years combined. And good news for pedigree sales grew 16% in a dog food market that had only grown by 1% that year. The Pedigree Child Replacement Program when they move out, move on, adopt a dog. Pedigree has another campaign that I thought was interesting. This one is called Adoptable. Emphasis on the Ad Adoptable uses AI technology to transform a basic photo of a shelter dog into a studio quality photograph. That shelter dog photo can then be inserted into any digital Pedigree ad. So for example, a big outdoor digital ad would say make cleaning their teeth a treat with Pedigree dentist sticks and it would show a shelter dog sitting beside a dentistic package. There was also a QR code on the digital billboard. Each ad directs people to a personalized landing page where they can learn more about the actual dog they just saw in the ad and how near the dog is to them geographically. Because if the dog is close by, more people are likely to act. When that dog is adopted, its face is immediately dropped out of the Pedigree media rotation and another dog's photo takes its place. Most companies have purpose led initiatives, but the money they spend on those initiatives is just a fraction of their budgets. But with this idea, every dollar Pedigree spends on advertising is also spent on helping shelter dogs find homes. The campaign has led to six times more shelter visits by the public and 50% of the featured shelter dogs found homes within the first two weeks. This campaign was so successful it is being rolled out globally and by 2026, every digital ad that Pedigree buys worldwide will feature its adoptable the market for pet clothes is Projected to hit $8 billion by 2032 and your pooch can actually dress better than you. High fashion designers have pet lines, including Ralph Lauren, Boss Tommy Hilfiger and Christian Louboutin at Gucci. Collars and leashes cost about $600 each. A Gucci food bowl is $2,200 and pet carrying cases will set you back about 5,000 bucks. But my favorite pet fashion line comes from Dolly Parton. It was all inspired by the very first record she ever recorded in 1959 called Puppy Love. Dolly does love animals, so in 2022 she launched a line of pet clothes and accessories called Doggie Parton. Puppy Love was my very first record and six decades later, my love for pets is stronger than ever. This inspired me to start my own line of Doggie Parton, apparel, accessories, toys and more with the little Dolly Flare. The now part of the proceeds will support Willoughby Farms, a rescue where animals in need find never ending love. Don't we all need that? There are pet tracksuits, pet puffer jackets and pet rhinestone dresses. Doggie Parton also offers collars and leashes, bedding and toys. There's even an entire Dolly dog getup complete with a blonde wig and everything is moderately priced. Dolly also holds a pet gala where celebrities share the Runway with their very fashionable four legged friends. And as you heard Dolly say, she gives back a portion of every sale to an animal rescue. Recently, IKEA in the UK launched its new line of pet items. Dog beds, blankets, cozy cat houses, stylish scratch boards and fun pet toys. All designed with four pet activities in sleeping, playing, eating and hiding. And each piece was designed with input from veterinarians and pet experts. IKEA then created online lookbooks that featured its new 29 piece pet collection. One was called a catalog and the other was called a dogalog. The lookbooks contain beautiful photographs of the IKEA items with dogs and cats enjoying them. And all of those dogs and cats are from shelters. So the lookbooks not only tell you about the pet furniture, but they also tell you about the pets in the photos and how to adopt them. IKEA also made monetary donations to local pet shelters and and donated all the fun pet furniture. Search IKEA catalog and Dogalog Online when we return. Solving the Toronto Dog Poop Problem hi, I'm Adam Grant, host of the podcast Work Life. For over 20 years, Paylocity has been simplifying work with innovative solutions that teams love like on demand payment which offers employees access to wages prior to payday, flexible time tracking features which enable staff to clock in and out through their mobile device and numerous other cutting edge solutions that simplify collaboration across hr, finance and it. Learn more about how paylocity can help streamline work and enhance business outcomes for your organization@paylocity.com simplified when you think of hot, you might think about the tragic time you ate too much wasabi, or about getting into your car on a summer day when it feels more like stepping into a sauna. But heat can work in your favor. Like during Verizon Red Hot Deal days. Get hundreds of hot deals on all your favorites like iPhone 16 Pro with Apple Intelligence, Apple Watch Series 10 and iPad on any plan only until May 28th for new and existing customers. Offer available on MyPlan only at Verizon. Ryan Reynolds Here from Mint Mobile I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same Premium Wireless for $15 a month plan that I've been enjoying. It's not just for celebrities, so do like I did and have one of your assistant's assistants switch you to Mint Mobile today. I'm told it's super easy to do@mintmobile.com Switch upfront payment of $45 for three month plan equivalent to $15 per month required intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See full terms at Mintmobile Do Dog poop is becoming a big problem in Toronto. The surge of pet adoptions during the pandemic has led to many inexperienced dog owners who don't pick up after their new pets. So a local pet store called Timmy Pet Supplies decided to lend a hand. It wasn't an easy fix. To help alleviate the poop problem, the campaign had to connect with dog owners without pointing fingers and putting people on the defensive. So the pet store partnered with a Toronto advertising agency called BLKW and came up with an unusual idea. We're all familiar with lost flyers we see put up around the city featuring a photo of a lost pet. So Timmy put up found flyers all around the city showing photos of poop that had been found and left behind. And instead of phone number tearaways at the bottom of the flyer, they had seven free doggie poop bags hanging there. The flyers said. If you're the owner, please come pick up. Feel free to use these complimentary bags or visit Timmy Pet Supplies and Grooming for all your pet needs. The owner of Timmy said that if nobody comes forward to claim the poop, maybe other dog owners can use the bags to help out, he said. Fingers and paws crossed. Toronto can stay beautiful and poop free. As we were saying earlier, pet maintenance is expensive. Not long ago, Meow Mix the only food cats ask for by name gave cat owners a way to win, or shall I say earn free cat food. You're no doubt familiar with the Meow Mix jingle from the 1980s. Yep, it's a classic. In a survey taken 16 years after the jingle was taken off the air, 81% of people surveyed claimed to have heard the jingle recently. That's how sticky that jingle is still bouncing around noggins 16 years later. Knowing that Meow Mix created an amusing Meowathon, it produced a 12 hour loop of the jingle and challenged cat owners to listen for hours at a time. The longer you listened, the more cat food you could earn. Audio coupons were inserted at various points in the 12 hour Meowathon and there was no way to skip ahead. You had to listen for hours to get the coupons. It was a definite commitment. As Meow Mix said, why not try? You already know the words. The 12 Hour Meow Mix jingle was probably the longest YouTube pre roll ever and was also available on the Meow Mix website. If you hung in there for the entire 12 hours, there was a chance to win an ultimate reward pack with a variety of Meow Mix products. It was definitely an endurance test. And by the way, it's rumored that the CIA often used the Meow Mix jingle on endless loops to wear down suspects during interrogations. Pedigree, who we mentioned earlier, came up with another amusing idea. It assembled a full classical orchestra and brought in dogs to conduct the orchestras. Actually, it was the dogs tails that did the conducting. The orchestra sat at the ready, then various dogs were brought in and put on a stool. Then the dogs were offered various stimuli from dog toys that made their tails wag gently, to broccoli which made their tails stop dead, to Pedigree treats that made their tails wag furiously. As you know, conductors controlled the tempo of an orchestra, so this orchestra had to follow the tempo of the dog's tails. When the tails wagged fast, the orchestra had to play prestissimo very quickly or so when hail went down, we had to play softer or quieter. The tempo of the classical pieces went from slow and mellow to bright and rapidly joyful. But here's the best part. 10 of the classical pieces as conducted by the dogs were recorded and put on Spotify. If you want to hear them. Search Pedigree Tale Orchestra I noticed the playlist has over 4800 monthly listeners, and with every stream, Pedigree donates money to help dogs in need find loving homes. As Pedigree says, the music is the sound of puppy joy when we return. Doctors prescribe dogs, God help us, but Canada has never been more interesting. What is happening now is urgent and important and you need to stay on top of it. Every day on Canadaland we bring you the information you need about Canadian politics and Canadian media through smart conversations and original investigations. This is Canada like you've never heard it before. Listen to Canada Land wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Adam Grant, host of the podcast Work Life. For over 20 years, Paylocity has been simplifying work with innovative solutions that teams love like On Demand Payment which offers employees access to wages prior to payday, flexible time tracking features which enable staff to clock in and out through their mobile device and numerous other cutting edge solutions that simplify collaboration across hr, finance and it. Learn more about how Paylocity can help streamline work and enhance business outcomes for your organization@paylocity.com simplified when you think of hot you might think about the tragic time you ate too much wasabi or about getting into your car on a summer day when it feels more like stepping into a sauna. But heat can work in your favor. Like during Verizon Red Hot Deal days. Get hundreds of hot deals on all your favorites like iPhone 16 Pro with Apple Intelligence, Apple Watch Series 10 and iPad on any plan only until May 28th for new and existing customers. Offer available on MyPlan only at Verizon. We're all familiar with the non stop onslaught of pharmaceutical commercials. There seems to be a new, hard to pronounce drug for every possible ailment including heart conditions. For people with heart problems, we recommend Astra. Astra is prescribed by most cardiologists to help reduce the risk of a heart disease attack. Astra doesn't come in pills. Astra is a mix of sweet and silly four year old dog ready to be adopted. People who adopted other dogs like Astra could reduce the risk of death by 65%. Get your petscription dog today and take it home. Adopting a dog could save their life and yours. Yes, you heard right, Astra is a dog. Research shows that owning a dog and walking a dog every day is help people with heart conditions to stay healthy and owning a dog was linked to a lower risk of death after a heart attack. In this unexpected campaign, a Dallas animal rescue service partnered with doctors to create an initiative called Prescription Dogs. During Heart Month, doctors prescribed adoptable dogs as part of a medical treatment for patients with heart conditions. Doctors were able to prescribe dogs like Astra right from their offices. Every adoptable Dog was its own prescription or petscription, with age, breed, and gender, and a unique QR code that took people directly to the animal shelter to begin the adoption process. The campaign was a huge success. 1200 additional people visited the adoption website. There was a 72% increase in Instagram visits, and 67% of the shelter dogs were adopted in one month. Prescription dogs. You touch their hearts, they help yours. Two more campaigns that just made me laugh. The first is a commercial about a guy who has a boa constrictor as a pet. Peter wanted a dog, but thought it'd be too much responsibility, so he got a boa. It doesn't come with nearly as many responsibilities, but it does come with one. Making sure the lid is secure so it doesn't get out and sneak up on him and squeeze him to death. So instead of lots of responsibilities, it's just the one words on the screen say, just get the dog. Hilarious. In Ecuador, an animal shelter wanted to convince people to adopt older dogs. Everybody wants the cute puppies, but older dogs are only chosen 25% of the time. So an advertising agency there created a cheeky print campaign, and I don't know how they got away with it. One Poster showed Leonardo DiCaprio with his young girlfriend, Camilla Maroney at the beach. He's got a pot belly. She's in a revealing bikini. Under Leo, it says 48 years old. Next to Camilla, it says 25 years old. In another poster, it showed Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler with his younger girlfriend, Amy Preston. Under Tyler's face, it said 74 years old. Under Preston's face, it said 35 years old. Both posters had the same adopt an old dog. If you're a pet owner, you know firsthand how precious pets are. They truly are members of the family, and when something is that loved, money is no object. In most of the ads we talked about today, there was both a profit motivation and an altruistic one. Companies like Pedigree and Purina are big corporations, but they also want to help animals that are in shelters. Yes, it's true that the more pet owners there are, the bigger the revenue potential. But those companies are putting their money where their advertising is. Every Pedigree ad features an adoptable dog, complete with adoption information, and they're doing it worldwide. It's also interesting that many of these companies are choosing to use humor, especially when asking people to adopt abandoned or abused shelter animals. There is, of course, another way to go, which is showing images of abused animals, but I always find those impossible to watch. Humor just seems to be better. Catnip I'm always amazed advertisers can still find fresh and creative ways of advertising good old pet food. No offense to Leonardo DiCaprio, but it seems you can teach an old dog new tricks when you're under the influence. I'm Terry O'Reilly. This episode was recorded in the Tear Stream Mobile Recording studio producer Debbie O'Reilly chief sound engineer Jeff Devine under the Influence themed by Casey Pick, Jeremiah Pick and James Ayton Barks courtesy of our friend Dexter. Tunes provided by APM Music. Follow me at Terry oinfluence this podcast is powered by Acast. See you next week. Fun Fact hi, this is Trudy from Windsor, Ontario. When Dolly Parton recorded the song PUPPY LOVE In 1959, she was just 13 years old. Hey, I'm Elise Hu, host of the podcast Ted Talks Daily. For more than 20 years, Paylocity has been leading the way with cutting edge work solutions like On Demand Payment, which offers employees access to wages prior to payday, flexible time Tracking features which enable staff to clock in and out through their mobile device, and numerous other cutting edge solutions that simplify collaboration across hr, finance and it. Learn more about how Paylocity can help streamline work and enhance business outcomes for your organization@paylocity.com simplified when you think of hot, you might think about the tragic time you ate too much wasabi or about getting into your car on a summer day when it feels more like stepping into a sauna. But heat can work in your favor like during Verizon Red Hot Deal Days. Get hundreds of hot deals on all your favorites like iPhone 16 Pro with Apple Intelligence, Apple Watch Series 10 and iPad on any plan only until May 28th for new and existing customers. Offer available on MyPlan only at Verizon. If you work as a manufacturing facilities engineer, installing a new piece of equipment can be as complex as the machinery itself. From prep work to alignment and testing, it's your team's job to put it all together. That's why it's good to have Grainger on your side. With industrial grade products and next day delivery, Grainger helps ensure you have everything you need close at hand through every step of the installation. Call 1-800-GRAINGER clickgrainger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done. You were made for going the extra mile for your pet, and Fara Pets was made to do the same. Fara Pets supplements are vet created with innovative ingredients that combine eastern and western therapies so your pet can thrive. 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