Flexi Discs

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Flexi Discs"

Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly
Episode Date: June 13, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Terry O’Reilly takes listeners on an inventive and nostalgic journey through the world of flexi discs—a quirky, ultra-thin format that revolutionized promotional marketing from the 20th century onwards. O’Reilly uses witty anecdotes and pop culture references to illustrate how flexis quietly shaped the way products, popular music, contests, and even cartoons intersected with advertising, ultimately carving out a unique niche in marketing history.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Archies' “Sugar Sugar” and the Cereal Box Revolution

• [02:57]–[07:49]

• Background: Don Kirschner, a prominent music promoter, created the fictional pop group “The Archies” for a cartoon, managing total creative control via session musicians and avoiding conflicts like those he faced with The Monkees.
• Marketing Masterstroke: The song "Sugar Sugar" became an unprecedented hit, partly due to a flexi disc embossed on the back of cereal boxes (Post Sugar Crisp, Honeycomb, and Alphabets).
• Impact: Over 5 million boxes featured the song’s cardboard record, making "Sugar Sugar" accessible to children across North America.

“A cardboard flexi of the song was embossed on post cereal boxes … so kids could cut the flexi out of the actual cereal box and put it on a turntable.” – Terry O’Reilly (06:55)

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2. The Origins and Odd Forms of Flexi Discs

• [07:49]–[14:34]

• Early Innovations: Flexis date back to 1903 with “talking postcards”—greetings with thin resin records playable on turntables.
• Global Appeal: Germany and the UK led early adoption, while US marketers quickly saw promotional potential.
• Notable Uses:
  • Bone Records: Behind the Iron Curtain, forbidden Western music was pressed onto discarded X-ray films, creating “bone records”.
  • Brand Ties: Wrigley’s gum used flexis to promote sponsored radio shows; major carmakers (Dodge, Chevrolet) and celebrities (Lawrence Welk, Lorne Green, Bing Crosby) used branded flexis for direct mail and product tie-ins.
  • Beatles' Fan Club Flexis: Annually issued Christmas messages (1963–1969) became prized collectibles.

    “The first flexi was sent out to 30,000 loyal fans in 1963.” – Terry O’Reilly (12:49)

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3. Cereal, Pop Music, and the Flexi Connection

• [14:34]–[16:03]

• Extending Youth Marketing: Flexis were fused into cereal boxes in the 1950s–70s to usher kids from cereal fandom to record-buying adolescence.
• Stars on Flexis: The Jackson 5 and The Monkees used box-cutout records to engage direct listeners, skirting radio gatekeepers.

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4. Mad Magazine & Parallel Groove Madness

• [18:37]–[19:45]

• Ingenious Gimmick: In 1979, Mad Magazine issued a flexi titled “It’s a Super Spectacular Day” with 8 parallel grooves—each offering a different outcome.
• Memorable Example:

  “If you drop the needle here you develop a twitch…and you’re getting the drots…and you manage to stay as you wither away but it’s not just a super spectacular day.”
  – Terry O’Reilly & Voice Actors (19:23–19:36)

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5. ALF, Burger King, and Collectible Flexis

• [19:45]–[20:52]

• Fast Food Tie-Ins: In the 1980s, Burger King paired kids’ meals with ALF-themed flexis—giving away 4.5 million and embedding them in a marketing-blitz that included hand puppets and toy rebates.
• Collector Appeal: Today, ALF flexis are coveted by fans.

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6. The Infamous McDonald’s Flexi Contest: A Million-Dollar Story

• [21:53]–[28:09]

• Huge Scale: In 1989, McDonald’s distributed 80 million flexis with their “Menu Song Contest,” but only one was a million-dollar winner.
• Heartbreaking Tale: The winner, a boy named Scotty Landreth in rural Virginia, couldn’t claim the prize as a minor—so his mother did. What followed was a brief rise in fortune (buying her store, being featured nationally) and then a tragic fall—losing the money, family disputes, and death in poverty.

“Ironically, Scotty ended up working at the local McDonald’s just to get by.” – Terry O’Reilly (27:39)

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7. Flexi Discs in Modern Promotions – Jack White’s Balloon Drop

• [30:09]–[31:02]

• Extreme Stunt: In 2012, Third Man Records attached 1,000 flexis of Jack White’s “Freedom at 21” to biodegradable helium balloons and released them over Nashville.
• Instant Rarity: One of these flexis quickly fetched over $4,000 on eBay, proving the persistent allure of the format.

“They made 1,000 flexi disc copies of the album track Freedom at 21, then attached the flexis to 1,000 biodegradable helium balloons.” – Terry O’Reilly (30:10)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Marketing Magic:
  “For just pennies apiece, flexis were an ideal way to get an audio message out to the masses.” – Terry O’Reilly (09:19)
• On Flexis’ Unique Value:
  “Above all, flexi discs offered two key aspects that marketers loved... they were cheap to make and easy to ship… the second and most seductive thing about flexi discs was the fact they were free. And everybody likes something free.” – Terry O’Reilly (32:10)

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Key Timestamps

• [02:57] The Archies and “Sugar Sugar” cereal box promo
• [04:48] Flexis as marketing tools; 1903 “talking postcards” and phonogram cards
• [10:48] Wrigley, Dodge & Chevrolet flexi ads
• [12:49] The Beatles Christmas fan club Flexis
• [14:34] Cereal box records: Wheaties, Disney, Jackson 5, Monkees
• [18:37] Mad Magazine's parallel-groove flexi
• [19:45] Burger King’s ALF Flexi discs
• [21:53] McDonald’s Menu Song Contest story
• [30:09] Jack White & Third Man Records' helium balloon flexi drop
• [32:10] O’Reilly’s reflections on what made flexis so powerful for marketers

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Tone & Style

Terry O’Reilly’s narration is warm, conversational, and packed with wry humor, nostalgia, and deep advertising insight. The episode balances lighthearted pop culture references with poignant human stories, particularly in the recounting of the McDonald's contest and its aftermath.

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Conclusion

This episode uncovers the fascinating, zany, and sometimes heartbreaking history of flexi discs, shedding light on how “worthless” promotional records helped move millions of dollars in product and build fan loyalty across generations. Expertly blending trivia, music, and marketing analysis, “Flexi Discs” is a must-listen for anyone interested in the unpredictable alchemy between culture and commerce.

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(Summary by Under the Influence Podcast Summarizer)

Transcript

[Terry O'Reilly]

Podcasting is a bit of a solitary pursuit, yet it takes a village to produce a podcast. But once an episode beams from the Terrastream to your earbuds, we don't get to see you talk to you. So we're excited that through apostrophe all ears, we've opened up a direct line between us, a forum to chat about episodes, about marketing. Just tap the link in the description

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[Terry O'Reilly]

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[Terry O'Reilly]

this is an Apostrophe podcast.

[Various Voice Actors (Flexi Disc Characters)]

Going to show you our big new Studebaker. Mama Mia. That's a spicy meatball. What love doesn't conquer, Alka sells her will.

[Mint Mobile Terms Announcer]

What a relief.

[Podcast Host or Narrator]

You're under the influence with Terry O'Reilly.

[Terry O'Reilly]

1969 was a great year for music. Songs like Honky Tonk Women, Elvis's Suspicious Minds, and Neil Diamond's classic Sweet Caroline topped the charts. But one song outsold all those classic tunes. It was named the Song of the year in 1969. But here's the thing. The group behind the song didn't really exist. And that was 20 years before Milli Vanilli, Don Kirschner was a music promoter. He had a talent for spotting talent, he and a partner started a publishing company called Alden Music. At various times, Alden had some of the top songwriters under contract, including Carole King and Jerry Goffin, Neil Sedaka, Paul Simon, Neil diamond and Bobby Darin. Kirschner was also a music consultant for a number of TV shows, including the Monkees sitcom. From his stable of writers in the Brill Building, Kirschner had hits written for the Monkees, including Last Train to Clarksville and the Neil diamond penned I'm a Believer. When the fictional Monkees began to get irritated at being micromanaged by Kirschner, it led to a clash that got Kirchner fired. Kirschner still craved creative control, but he didn't want a repeat of the Monkees fiasco. Then one day, he had an idea. Kirschner decided to create a group that didn't exist. He had been hired as a music consultant to the new Archies cartoon series. So Kirschner struck a deal with the producers. He would supply songs to the show and he would create a fictional band called the Archies, ostensibly made up of the animated Archie characters. But the band would actually consist of studio musicians and session singers. If anyone rebelled, Kirshner could easily replace them. The first song Kirchner supplied was Bang Shang A Lang, which went to number 22 on the Billboard chart. Next came Feelin so Good, which didn't feel so good, peaking at number 53. Then came a huge hit composed by Jeff Berry and Canadian Andy Kim. It was titled Sugar Sugar Sugar Sugar zoomed to number one on the Billboard Hot 100, where it stayed for four straight weeks, Hip checking honky tonk women off the top spot. According to some reports, Sugar Sugar sold upwards of 6 million copies. It was named the top song of 1969. Part of the reason the song became such a monster hit had to do with an unusual marketing strategy. A cardboard flexi of the song was embossed on post cereal boxes of Sugar, Crisp, Honeycomb and alphabets so kids could cut the flexi out of the actual cereal box and put it on a turntable. The cardboard cereal records gave Sugar Sugar a huge boost, as it's estimated the song was put on over 5 million cereal boxes. Flexi discs hold a unique spot in the world of marketing. These razor thin, poorly sounding records became a cheap way to sell a lot of products. Flexis also helped sell a lot of records, as Flexis would often be the very first records that Kids ever owned. Flexi discs were also a novel way to promote contests. And in one of our stories, today, a family won a million dollars and a million heartaches. You're under the influence. The flexi disc is an unusual little item. They are ultra thin, flexible vinyl sheets, sometimes round, often square records the size of a 7 inch 45. They have poor sound quality, can only be played a small number of times before wearing out, and you usually needed to place a coin on the flexi to add weight so it would spin at the same speed as the turntable. For all its drawbacks, flexis were a powerful marketing tool. Believe it or not, flexi disks have been around for more than 100 years. Back in 1903, European inventors took out patents on something they called talking postcards. They were actual postcards that had a thin, almost transparent piece of resin attached to it with a spindle hole punched into the middle. A short voice message could be recorded onto the phonographic grooves of the resin. The postcard could then be mailed and played back on a turntable. And the light weight of the postcard didn't cause any appreciable increase in postage costs. They were a hit in Germany and the uk. A few years later in the United States, patents were filed for something called phonogram cards. These were small cards with miniature thin phonographs attached. But unlike Europe, they were mostly used for advertising purposes. They were cheap to produce and easy to ship. In the 1930s, the Durian Company created a hit of the Week series of very popular cardboard records, even though they only sold for a couple of nickels at newsstands. The first golden age of flexi discs was stopped in its tracks by the Depression. The post World War II boom brought many manufacturing companies back to life, including the recording industry. This time, instead of selling the flexi discs, companies saw them as inexpensive yet powerful promotional tools. For just pennies apiece, flexis were an ideal way to get an audio message out to the masses. The best thing about flexis was how flexible they were when it came to formats. They could even be stamped onto old X ray films. Because there was a vinyl shortage behind the Iron Curtain, black market entrepreneurs transferred the forbidden music of the west onto X ray films that had been discarded from hospitals. Called bone records, the grooves of the audio were imprinted into the thin X ray film. They were then hand cut into a circular shape and a center hole was created using the lit end of a cigarette. Meanwhile, in North America, Wrigley's gum produced flexis of a radio program it sponsored called Mert and Marge. It was a soap opera that featured two chorus girls who apparently competed for the same parts and the same men. By distributing the flexis, Wrigley hoped to attract more people to the radio show.

[Various Voice Actors (Flexi Disc Characters)]

Wrigley presents Mert and Mars. How do you do? May we come in? May I present Mert's how do you do? And Marge.

[Mint Mobile Terms Announcer]

How do you do?

[Various Voice Actors (Flexi Disc Characters)]

We've come to see you for just a moment to let you hear Merton Marge in action. May we use your home for a studio? Thank you.

[Terry O'Reilly]

Carmaker Dodge mailed out Christmas flexis to promote its upcoming 1958 model line, hiring TV host Lawrence Welk to deliver a wonderful, wonderful yuletide message.

[Various Voice Actors (Flexi Disc Characters)]

Hello, folks, this is Lawrence Welk bringing you special Christmas greetings from all the champagne music makers on behalf of your nearby Dodge dealer.

[Terry O'Reilly]

Chevrolet knew a good thing when they heard it and issued its own flexi starring Canadian actor Lorne Green.

[Various Voice Actors (Flexi Disc Characters)]

Hi, this is Lorne Green. You know Ben Cartwright of Bonanza. The boys and I are sure you're going to find this mighty good listening.

[Terry O'Reilly]

The flexi was mass mailed to people hoping to prompt a visit to their nearest Chevy dealer. Bing Crosby was a big fan of promotional discs and created a company to manufacture them called Bing Crosby Phono Cards Inc. One of the flexi discs he created was found on the plastic lid of Borden's Creamed Country Style Cottage Cheese. One of the most popular flexi disc series in the 1960s came courtesy of the Beatles. Every year the Fab Four would issue an exclusive Christmas message for their fan club members. The idea came from Beatles PR manager Tony Barrow. The flexis featured photos of the Beatles and gave Barrow an opportunity to tuck a newsletter inside the sleeve. The first flexi was sent out to 30,000 loyal fans in 1963.

[Various Voice Actors (Flexi Disc Characters)]

Hello, this is John speaking with his voice. We're all very happy to be able to talk to you like this on this little bit of plastic. This record reaches you at the end of a really gay year for us and it's all due to you.

[Terry O'Reilly]

George thanked fan club secretary Anne Callingham, even though there was in fact no such person. Anne Callingham was a pseudonym for all the secretaries who handled the endless bags of fan mail.

[Various Voice Actors (Flexi Disc Characters)]

I'm George Harrison. Nobody else has said anything yet about our fan club secretaries. And Collingwood, Bettina Rose, not to mention Frida Kelly.

[Terry O'Reilly]

In Liverpool, with the exception of 1965, the Beatles put out a Christmas flexi every year from 63 to 69. Because the Fab Four Flexis were never sold in stores. They're worth quite a bit of money today. Breakfast cereals also featured a flavor form of flexis. In the 1950s, wheaties issued a number of cereal box records. A micro groove plastic film was stamped onto the side of the actual cereal box itself. Kids could cut the cardboard record out of the box and pop it on the turntable.

[Various Voice Actors (Flexi Disc Characters)]

It's a record of Mickey Mouse singing Happy Mouse. And here's where you can get this famous Walt Disney's Mouseketeer record. It's part of the front of this special Wheaties box. And it's a real record. Not just a picture, but an actual record you can play over and over again. Just cut it out, punch out the center hole and look all ready to play on any 78 RPM manual control record player.

[Terry O'Reilly]

Later, starting in the 60s, popular bands started marketing songs with cereal box records. It was a smart way to market music as record labels could bypass the cost and politics of radio programming and market new records directly to fans. Record labels were able to groom their next target fan base, as these cereal box records were often the very first records kids ever owned. Once the flexis wore out, kids would then buy the singles and albums along with the aforementioned Archie cereal box record. Other groups used flexis to attract new fans. For example, the Jackson 5 song ABC could be found on boxes of alphabets. The sound quality wasn't very good, but kids cut them out by the thousands. In 1970, four, different Monkees hit songs appeared on post cereal boxes, keeping the Monkees popular even though their TV show had ended two years earlier.

[Various Voice Actors (Flexi Disc Characters)]

And that was for all the kids at Central High. And kids, if you enjoy good music and good cereal, here's an offer you won't want to miss. Now you can get all the monkeys greatest hits free on post. Alphabets, Honeycombs and Frosted Rice crinkles. Let's listen 12 great songs. Four on alphabets, four on honeycombs, four on new rice crinkles. One song free on each box. The monkey's greatest hits free from those music lovers at Post when we come

[Terry O'Reilly]

back, Mad Magazine creates a MAD Flexi disc idea.

[Mint Mobile Terms Announcer]

If you're enjoying this episode, you might also like the Pompitis of Skippy. When brand names show up in hit songs from our 2019 season, we tell the story of how the Kinks had to re record one word in their hit song Lola because they mentioned a brand name in the original lyric. You'll find the episode in our archives on your favorite podcast.

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[Terry O'Reilly]

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[Terry O'Reilly]

Mad magazine put out an interesting flexi disk in 1979 titled It's a Super Spectacular Day. The flexi had eight different parallel grooves, so depending on where you drop the needle, you got eight different stories. Drop it here and it's a great

[Various Voice Actors (Flexi Disc Characters)]

big beautiful, wonderful, incredible, super spectacular day and your heart is humming with good times coming and you've got that happy feeling Things are going your way, all the bells are ringing and a little bird singing while he sits on your windowsill saying yes siree, I can surely see it'll plainly be most definitely a super spectacular day

[Terry O'Reilly]

but if you drop the needle here you develop a twitch

[Various Voice Actors (Flexi Disc Characters)]

and a horrible itch and you're covered with spots and you're getting the drots and you feast on the swelling it's easy to tell from this hideous wheeze It's a powerful disease so you call

[Mint Mobile Terms Announcer]

an MD and he says don't ask

[Various Voice Actors (Flexi Disc Characters)]

me if it gets any worse you can speak to my nurse and you manage to stay as you wither away but it's not just a super spectacular day.

[Terry O'Reilly]

Inventive madness from the folks at MAD. In the 1980s, every kid's meal at Burger King came with one of several paper Flexis titled The Many Faces of Alf. The songs were sung by Alf from the sitcom Alf. As you may remember, ALF stood for alien life form, as alf was an alien from the planet Melmac who crash landed in the garage of a middle class family. In this Burger King promotion, each flexi came with an ALF hand puppet and kids could get a $3 rebate on ALF plush toys by sending a mail in coupon that came with the flexis. This flexi features Alf singing about melmac girls.

[Various Voice Actors (Flexi Disc Characters)]

Those girls, those melmac girls they're out of this world those melmac girls.

[Terry O'Reilly]

Burger King distributed 4.5 million ALF Flexi discs and today they are collector's items. Flexi discs were also a great vehicle for contests. In 1986, Quaker Oats produced five flexi discs which were tucked inside specially marked packages of granola dips. The contest was called Great moments in rock and roll and the discs featured stories and songs from Bon Jovi, the Bangles, the Alarm, the psychedelic furs, as well as a tribute to John Lennon. Over 20,000 prizes were given out and you had to listen to the very end of the flexi to see if you were a. One of the most infamous flexi stories was for the McDonald's Menu Song Contest. Back in 1989, McDonald's put their entire menu into a song, then mounted a large advertising campaign to promote it. Hi, may I take your order please?

[McDonald's Menu Song Singer]

Big Mac, McDLT, a quarter pounder with cheese filet, a fish, a hamburger, a cheeseburger, McChicken and McNuggets. Tasty golden French fries, regular and larger size of salad chef for garden or chicken salad, oriental and for breakfast egg big muffin, hotter cakes with sausage, baby omelette, big muffins, all three kinds of Danish hashmas 2 and 4. Dessert hot apple pies and sundaes, three varieties, the saucer cones, three kinds of shakes and chocolatey chip cookies and a drink of coca cola dyed coconnories drink a sprite in coffee and a chocolate. Also apple, orange and grapefruit juice. I love McDonald's good and gracious and I get this all in one place.

[Various Voice Actors (Flexi Disc Characters)]

Now let me get this straight.

[Terry O'Reilly]

You wanna the tune was based on a 1974 hit song titled Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me to roll out the contest. McDonald's ran a commercial telling people that they were putting special coupons and a Flexi disc inside local newspapers. McDonald's has put something amazing in this week's newspaper. Valuable McDonald's menu song food coupons that might win you thousands of dollars and a free record of McDonald's menu song.

[Various Voice Actors (Flexi Disc Characters)]

What?

[Terry O'Reilly]

Just listen and you could win a million dollars instantly. Big Mac McDLT, a quarter pounder with

[Acast Representative]

some cheese filet, a fish, a hamburger, a cheeseburger, a Happy Meal.

[Terry O'Reilly]

McDonald's Million Dollar Menu song and Menu song food coupons in this week's paper, the Flexi disc featured a teacher telling a class about the contest.

[Acast Representative]

Good morning class. Today we're going to learn the McDonald's menu song and give a listener out

[Various Voice Actors (Flexi Disc Characters)]

there a chance to win a million dollars.

[Acast Representative]

So repeat after me. Big Mac McDeel, TIA Quarter Pounder with some cheese filet.

[Terry O'Reilly]

The class learns the song, then the teacher asks them to sing it back. Got it?

[Mint Mobile Terms Announcer]

Got it.

[Terry O'Reilly]

Okay, now you do it.

[Various Voice Actors (Flexi Disc Characters)]

Nah, too bad.

[Terry O'Reilly]

And here was the key detail. McDonald's sent out 80 million Flexis. 80 million. But only one single Flexi had the class singing the Menu song all the way through with no mistakes. So the chances of winning were 1 in 80 million. For context, 80 million Flexis outnumbered Michael Jackson's Thriller album, which is the biggest selling album in history with 70 million sold. In other words, this was a big promotion from McDonald's. One cold February in the small town of Galax, Virginia, a 13 year old boy named Scotty Landreth was looking for something to start a fire with in his family's old wood stove. His mother, Charlene Price had chucked a bunch of old Galax Gazette newspapers into a box for burning. So Scotty grabbed one. As he started ripping the paper up, he noticed something. There was a shiny black Flexi record tucked inside it. His family didn't have much. There was no running water in the house and Scotty's clothes were all hand me downs. But they did have a second hand record player. Scotty didn't own any records himself, but he took the flexi and put it on the turntable. It was the McDonald's menu song flexi. As Scotty listened to the class, started singing the song and finished it successfully. That's when the teacher came back on and said, you have just won a million dollars. Contact McDonald's at this number for verification. Scotty ran to the phone and called his mom who worked at a local grocery store. She raced home, called the number and was told the family had indeed just one. A million dollars because the winner had to be 16 years of age or older. Scotty couldn't claim the prize, so McDonald's flew Charlene out to Chicago. Her first time on a plane, put her up in a fancy hotel room, filmed a commercial as the contest winner, and Oprah's stylist did her hair. Charlene Price felt like she was on another planet. When she got back home, her life changed completely. She married the love of her life. She bought the grocery store where she worked and renamed it the Price is Right. Her boss became her employee, and she hired various relatives to work in the store. At some point, she gave Scotty and his sister $10,000 each. A few years after she bought the store, things started to go downhill. Charlene sold the store at a loss. Some say she took too many lavish vacations that family members stole from her and that she found it difficult to manage that much money. The million dollars was being paid in monthly installments, and at some point, Charlene sold the annuity to somebody else for a lump sum up front. Her marriage fell apart. She met another man from out of town one day. He emptied both bank accounts, left town, and was never seen again. The family was left penniless. Ironically, Scotty ended up working at the local McDonald's just to get by. Charlene eventually got ill, moved into her sister's trailer, and passed away not long after. Today, Scotty Landreth works at various odd jobs in Galax, and he and his sister had a falling out over the money. In an interview recently, Scotty said that the only reason he put the flexi on the turntable that fateful day was because he didn't own any records himself. And if he had, he probably would have thrown the flexi into the fire. When we come back, Jack White literally launches a flexi into the sky.

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[Terry O'Reilly]

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[Ryan Reynolds]

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[Terry O'Reilly]

Flexi discs still take flight in promotions to this day. Three weeks before the release of Jack White's debut solo album, Blunderbuss, his label, Third Man Records, was looking for an inventive way to to launch the album and decided to take the word launch literally. They made 1,000 Flexi disc copies of the album track Freedom at 21, then attached the Flexis to 1,000 biodegradable helium balloons.

[Acast Representative]

Hi, I'm Ben Blackwell at Third Man Records. For a long time we've been excited about non traditional forms of record distribution, so it's with great excitement that we release Jack White's Freedom at 21 on a Flexi disc, only available via helium balloon launch from our headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee. Hope you can find one with that.

[Terry O'Reilly]

One thousand helium balloons were launched from the record company's Nashville office. It was an unusual idea. The balloons attracted press, and it was a novel way to get the record into the hands of people who don't visit record shops. Seventeen days later, a Jack White Flexi sold on eBay for $4,238. It was the highest price ever paid for a flexi. For a flimsy item. With plenty of drawbacks, the humble flexi disc has an honorable place in the history of marketing. It has helped sell cars, hit songs, chewing gum, beetle records, soap operas, million dollar contests, and alien plush toys. Flexis were more than flexible. They existed on razor thin vinyl, on postcards, paper, cereal boxes, plastic cottage cheese lids, and even discarded X rays. Above all, flexi discs offered two key aspects that marketers loved. First, they were cheap to make and easy to ship, could be slipped into a thin envelope or go airborne with a balloon. But the second and most seductive thing about flexi discs was the fact they were free. And everybody likes something free. And when something free, all you have to do is scratch the surface to find the marketing 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 Research Shay Grindin Theme music by Casey Pick, Jeremiah Pick and James Ayton Tunes provided by APM Music Follow Me erryoinfluence this podcast is powered by acast.

[Various Voice Actors (Flexi Disc Characters)]

Terry's top slogans of all time.

[Terry O'Reilly]

Number three Timex takes a licking and keeps on ticking. See you next week.

[Various Voice Actors (Flexi Disc Characters)]

Foreign.

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[Terry O'Reilly]

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Hello everyone.

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We wanted to give you a big update we're very excited about on our weekly product review series called Live With It.

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Yes, Live with it started as an occasional DTNs segment for our patrons over at patreon.com DTNs but because of such great feedback, we decided to open it up as a standalone show with even more reviewers and a wider range of products. And now, because of even greater feedback

[Terry O'Reilly]

we've gotten since then, we're giving Live

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