← Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly
Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly
Seeing Is Believing: The Power of Demonstration Commercials - Part Two
00:26:45
An encore episode of Under The Influence.... one of our favourites.Last week, we talked about the best historic demonstration commercials of all time. This week, we feature some of the most…
Loading summary
Transcript51 lines
- [00:04]
A
Hi, this is Jeff Devine, audio engineer
- [00:06]
B
for the Apostrophe Podcast Network. And this is Margo.
- [00:09]
C
Hello.
- [00:09]
B
And you're listening to the Apostrophe Podcast Podcast Network Network.
- [00:16]
C
Enjoy.
- [00:17]
B
Enjoy. Acast Powers the world's best podcasts. Here's a show that we recommend.
- [00:36]
C
Hello, hello, it's Brooke Devard from Naked Beauty. Join me each week for unfiltered discussion about beauty trends, self care, journeys, wellness tips and the products we absolutely love and cannot get enough of. If you are a skincare obsessive and you spend 20 plus minutes on your skincare routine, this podcast is for you. Or if you're a newbie at the beginning of your skincare journey, you'll love this podcast as well. Because we go so much deeper than beauty. I talk to incredible and inspiring people from across industries about their relationship with beauty. You'll also hear from skincare experts. We break down lots of myths in the beauty industry. If this sounds like your thing, search for Naked Beauty on your podcast app and listen along. I hope you'll join us.
- [01:19]
A
Your team just added its 67th AI tool and also your 67th security blind spot. The good news, the Vanta Agent works like a GRC engineer in the background, finding every app your team uses, scoring the risk and drafting fixes for you. Vanta is the platform used by over 16,000 fast moving companies like Ramp Cursor and Harvey who are shaping the future with AI and staying ahead of AI risk. Get started@vanta.com.
- [01:45]
C
this year's girls trip to Telluride was the best. We one upped ourselves with my Sapphire Preferred card and with 5x points on Chase Travel, plus 3 times points on vacation homes with top brands. We got this incredible, incredible cabin. It was a mansion. And with three times the points on dining, we ordered a wagyu steak dinner. And that pistachio gelato was too good. So where should we go next year? I've got ideas. Chase Sapphire preferred the card that's preferred for a reason. Cards issued by JP Morgan, Chase bank and a member FDIC subject to credit approval terms apply.
- [02:18]
B
This is an Apostrophe podcast production. You're soaking in it.
- [02:36]
C
Your teeth look whiter than.
- [02:37]
B
No.
- [02:37]
A
No,
- [02:44]
B
You're not heal.
- [02:45]
C
When you're hungry,
- [02:49]
B
you're in good hands with all.
- [02:57]
C
You're under the influence of Terry O'Reilly.
- [03:14]
B
Question Can a cow climb a tree? Of course not. Can a horse climb a tree?
- [03:21]
A
No.
- [03:22]
B
Can a sheep climb a tree? Absolutely not. Can a goat climb a tree? Well, yes. Goats are not cuddly. Like sheep. You can't ride them like horses. They aren't as ubiquitous as cows and their eyes are kind of creepy. But in lieu of all that, nature has given certain goats a superpower. They can climb trees. The first time I saw a photo of goats in trees, I thought it was a joke, but it's true. In southwest Morocco, the dry arid ground doesn't produce much vegetation, but there's a tree there called Argania spinosa, also known as an argan tree. These trees produce a fruit goats love. The round grape like fruit is yellow or brown in color, has a soft, pulpy flesh with an oil rich nut at the center. And by the way, those nuts contain an oil that is prized for its skin moisturizing ability. The goats spit the nuts out and the Moroccan villagers collect the valuable oil. Goats have an acute sense of smell and are drawn to the argan fruit by its sweet aroma. So the goats climb the 10 meter or 30 foot trees to eat the fruit and they climb straight up the trees with ease. It's not unusual to see half a dozen goats up in a tall tree, balancing on long branches that seem to defy physics. It's an extraordinary sight. Goats have evolved to do difficult climbs. You've probably seen pictures of mountain goats scaling a sheer rock face with ease and in a way that an expert human climber with high tech equipment could never pull off. Goats have unusual hoofs. They have two toes that can spread out to gain secure footing and two dew claws higher up on their legs that can be used as leverage when climbing a vertical surface. Plus, goats have an innate sense of balance that humans and most other animals simply do not possess. It's easy to think pictures of goats in trees are photoshopped, but they're not. I invite you to search goats in trees on Google or YouTube because even though the thought of goats climbing tall trees is mind boggling, seeing is belie. Seeing is believing in the world of marketing too. Welcome to part two of our demonstration commercials episode. There's nothing more powerful than seeing a product demonstration. Especially if that demonstration is dramatic or completely surprising. In our last episode, we talked about the classic demonstration commercials. But in the 21st century, demonstration commercials have scaled new heights.
- [06:42]
C
You're under the influence.
- [06:57]
B
Last week, I asked a dozen top advertising creative directors to list the goat or greatest of all time demonstration commercials. And we talked about the top classic ones. This week, I'm going to go back to those lists to talk about the most recent examples. The creative directors returned to Volvo. The classic Volvo print Ad we discussed last week had the ad writer lying on the floor under a suspended Volvo to prove the strength of the car's spot welds. Well, not long ago, Volvo created another remarkable demonstration commercial starring Jean Claude Van Damme. We talked about this ad when it first came out. The commercial was designed to demonstrate the precision steering available in Volvo 18 Wheeler trucks. The dynamic steering system receives 2000 signals per second from the truck's onboard sensors, allowing for remarkable control. Here was the commercial idea. Two big Volvo 18 wheel transports are moving side by side on a stretch of highway. Standing between the two trucks is Jean Claude Van Damme. But the trucks aren't moving forward, they're moving backwards. I've had my ups and downs, my fair share of bumpy roads and heavy winds. That's what made me what I am today. Now I stand here before you. What you see, it's a body crafted to perfection. A pair of legs engineered to defy the laws of physics. And a mindset to master the most epic of splits. As the camera pulls back, we see that Van Damme is actually straddling both vehicles with one foot on the side mirror of each truck. As the trucks move in reverse, they begin to slowly separate, causing the then 53 year old van Dam to do something remarkable. He starts doing the splits. It's amazing to see. You have to watch it on YouTube. The trucks stay perfectly in sync, moving at a good speed backwards as Van Dam slowly moves into a full split. Once he attains that epic split, the trucks remain perfectly stable, still moving backwards down the highway, providing a spectacular demonstration of the exquisite precision of Volvo dynamic steering. The ad agency and film company rehearsed the stunt for three days. And when it came time for Van Damme, the commercial was shot in one single take. The choice to put the trucks in reverse was strategic. As everyone knows, driving backwards is much more challenging than moving forward. The spectacular demonstration was put online so it could reach millions of truck companies and future truck drivers. To date, that commercial has been viewed 118 million times. Remember the Dove litmus test from last week where litmus paper was used to demonstrate how mild Dove is compared to all other soaps? Recently, there was another Litmus ad done. It was a billboard in the uk. It was created by an environmental organization called Friends of the Earth. The billboard said, this is litmus paper. When acid rain is falling, you should see red. After several rainfalls, the entire billboard turned red. A stunningly quick transformation. A video of the billboard changing color was put online. The disturbing message was set to the innocent tune of Rhythm of the Rain by the Cascades from 1962. The video ended by asking people to join friends of the earth, because the earth needs all the friends it can get. Back in 1966, Volkswagen was the new small car sensation. It did a TV commercial that showed basketball great Wilt Chamberlain standing beside a VW beetle. When 7 foot 1 inch wilt Chamberlain tried to get in a Volkswagen, people said it couldn't be done. Oh man, it couldn't. Of course, there's plenty of room for Bill Cunningham, but then he's only six foot six. It was an ad showing the surprising leg room inside a tiny VW Beetle because the engine was in the back. Now fast forward ahead 40 years. The new small car sensation was the BMW Mini. Like the VW Beetle, it was small and loaded with personality. A 15 second TV commercial was produced to demonstrate the surprising roominess of a Mini. The commercial begins with a Mini parked in an isolated spot at night. Inside the car, a girl and a guy pop up a little out of breath, hair tousled, doing up their shirts. When the girl says,
- [12:51]
C
wow, there is a lot of room in here.
- [12:55]
B
Then suddenly, a second girl pops up in the backseat.
- [12:59]
C
Yeah.
- [13:01]
B
Threesome, anyone? It was a 21st century version of the VW Wilt Chamberlain demonstration with a bigger layup. Back in the day, air freshener commercials would show a room full of cigarette smoke filled with unhappy people. Then, with the spray of a room freshener, everybody would be happy again. These days, air freshener commercials take it a bit further. Febreze launched a campaign to prove that eliminating bad odors and replacing them with freshness could make people happier. So it launched the Febreze Breathe Happy social experiment based on one universal insight. You can close your eyes, but you can never turn off your nose. According to Febreze, we breathe in 23,000 times a day and the odors are often far from pleasant. So Febreze pulled in people from off the street, blindfolded them and exposed them to some very smelly items and locations. But here's the kicker. Those terrible odors were treated with Febreze. Then the people were asked to describe what they smelled. In one instance, a blindfolded woman smelled a very well worn boot. And when asked to describe it, she
- [14:38]
A
said they described what they smelled.
- [14:40]
C
Okay, that reminds me of breakfast.
- [14:42]
B
And witness firsthand that Febreze really can make you happier. In another experiment, a blindfolded man is asked to smell a disgusting pile of filthy dishes in the back of a restaurant. Tell me what you smell. I smell caramel. Like a caramel candy.
- [14:57]
A
Go ahead and take your blindfold off.
- [14:58]
B
Oh, my God. Oh, wow. The commercials directed people to Facebook, where they could see even more experiments. Another asked a blindfolded man to sniff the armpit of a bodybuilder, then said the smell reminded him of a pleasant forest. In still another cringeworthy moment, a blindfolded woman is asked to smell an appallingly dirty toilet and describes it as floral, cringeworthy, but highly persuasive. In every case, people describe the worst possible revolting, smelly situation with words like there's a freshness.
- [15:40]
C
Watermelony, but a little bit tart. Clean like a Macintosh apple.
- [15:44]
B
Just smell apples and pears, Cider scarecrows.
- [15:47]
C
Oh, come on. I smell apples.
- [15:49]
B
Reminds me of Mother's Day.
- [15:51]
C
I guess I could be in Spain. We're at a really nice, posh resort. Seems very spacious.
- [15:56]
B
Makes me feel
- [15:59]
C
hungry.
- [16:01]
B
And when they were told to take their blindfolds off? No Febreze set and refresh eliminates odors so you can breathe happy. It was a powerful demonstration. The Breathe Happy Social experiment generated over 1 billion worldwide media impressions and a 425% increase in Facebook fans, making the Febreze page the world's third fastest growing page in the weeks following the launch. The campaign worked, as it generated 10 weeks of continuous sales growth. The demonstrations were so persuasive, Febreze became one of the fastest growing brands for Proctor and Gamble, even though it had no new product news to promote. And that's nothing to sniff at. While a lot of demonstration commercials are devised to surprise you, some are created to put you to sleep. ACAST powers the world's best podcasts. Here's a show that we recommend.
- [17:21]
C
What if you laughed all through your commute? Or if you heard the funniest story while at the gym? Well, now you can. I'm Jameela Jamil and guests on my new podcast, Wrong Turns share their most mortifying and hilarious disaster stories. I'm talking people like Mae Martin, Bob the Drag Queen, Catherine Ryan, Jake Johnson, Margaret Cho, Simon Pegg, Penn Badgley, and so many more. So listen wherever you get your podcasts from.
- [17:46]
B
Wrong Terms where dignity goes to die. ACAST helps creators launch, grow and monetize their podcasts everywhere.
- [17:57]
A
Acast.com your team just added its 67th AI tool and also your 67th security blind spot. The good news? The Vanta agent works like a GRC engineer in the background, finding every app your team uses, scoring the risk and drafting fixes for you. Vanta is the platform used by over 16,000 fast moving companies like Ramp Cursor and Harvey who are shaping the future with AI and staying ahead of AI risk. Get started@vanta.com this year's girls trip to
- [18:27]
C
Telluride was the best. We one upped ourselves with my Sapphire preferred card and with 5 times points on Chase travel plus 3 times points on vacation homes with top brands we got this incredible cabin. It was a mansion and with three times the points on dining. We ordered a wagyu steak dinner and that pistachio gelato was too good. So where should we go next year? I've got ideas. Chase Sapphire preferred the card that's preferred for a reason. Cards issued by JP Morgan Chase bank and a member FDIC subject to credit approval terms apply.
- [19:07]
B
The mattress industry has gone from a sleepy back of the store category to a highly competitive one. Much of its success has been built with demonstration commercials. Simmons Beautyrest and Sealy Mattresses have been slugging it out for years. Sealy Mattresses started out in 1881 when a cotton gin builder got a request for a cotton filled mattress. More and more requests came in, so Sele began to manufacture cotton mattresses and filed several patents. Meanwhile, Simmons Beautyrest introduced the revolutionary pocketed coil springs in 1925. Each pocket moved individually so one person rolling over on a mattress wouldn't disturb the other sleeping partner. That innovation was dramatically demonstrated in a way many of you will remember in the commercial. A set of bowling pins is standing on the competition's mattress. Then a bowling ball is dropped onto the mattress to demonstrate the unique Beautyrest mattress by Simmons. We're dropping the ball on the competition, that is. And all of the pins fall down because the coils on the competitive mattress are all linked. Then a bowling ball is dropped onto a beauty rest mattress with individually pocketed coils. The pins don't fall, they don't even quiver. Almost every other mattress made relies on linked springs so when the person next to you moves, you get disturbed. But only Beautyrest uses individually pocketed coils to help assure you undisturbed sleep. It was a powerful visual demonstration. Then along came a new mattress, Tempur Pedic. The Tempur material was actually invented by NASA to absorb the g force of astronauts traveling in space. It was a revolutionary slow spring back foam containing billions of open cells that were heat sensitive. It adapts to your body's weight, shape and temperature. When NASA released the formula for consumer use, a company called Tempur Pedic began developing mattresses with the material as a new entrant into the well established mattress category, Tempur Pedic had to make a splash, or a non splash, so to speak. In a memorable demonstration, a man jumps up and down on a white mattress. There is also a glass of red wine on that mattress. Look how this wine glass doesn't tip over when this person jumps up and down. No other sleep surface can absorb motion and cushion weight like Tempur Pedic. It was a very convincing demonstration of how the mattress doesn't cause what the industry calls motion transfer. Because Tempur Pedic had done away with springs, it was revolutionary. But that meant people were skeptical. After all, the public had been sleeping on springs for a century and a Tempur Pedic mattress wasn't cheap. So Tempur Pedic took the risk out of the purchase. It sent potential customers a free video and information kit that included a Tempur material sample that you could hold in your hand and squeeze. When you purchased the mattress. You could try it out for 120 nights free of charge. If you didn't like it, you could return it and you got a 20 year limited warranty. But above all, it was the wine glass demonstration that launched Tempur Pedic into the stratosphere. And that wine glass is still used in commercials today. Not long ago, a highly awarded advertising agency called Rethink in Vancouver created a very memorable demonstration. It was the model of simplicity. Their client was a security company that wanted to promote the strength of 3m unbreakable glass. So rethink installed stacks of money 3ft high between the glass of a bus shelter. If you were to do the math, that stack of bills would total around $3 million. The logo simply said 3M unbreakable glass. Then Rethink just left it there on the street, unguarded. Next, they aimed a video camera at the bus shelter to see if people would try to break the glass. Sure enough, people lined up to try. They kicked it. They hit it. There were a few flying sidekicks and even some construction workers with steel toed boots. The glass never broke. The press excitedly covered the Spectacle, generating about $1 million worth of publicity for the security company and 3M. The National Post devoted a full page story to the million dollar stunt. The story went round the world. It was a fascinating product demonstration because it wasn't on television or in a magazine. It was out on the street for the public to see and kick for themselves. My friend Paul Lavoie founded one of the most creative advertising agencies in Canada that we've spoken about many times called taxi advertising. When I asked Paul about his favorite demonstration commercials, he pointed out that some demonstrations can be told conceptually. A demonstration of a demonstration, in other words. For example, he told me about a Christmas commercial he once saw. It was very simple. A hand comes into frame and shakes a snow globe, but nothing happens. Then words appear on the screen that said happy Holidays from head and shoulders. Such a perfectly simple demonstration for a dandruff shampoo. Paul also told me a story about a commercial he once created for a banana yogurt. His idea was to have a monkey sitting at a table, and on that table was a banana on the left and a cup of banana yogurt on the right. And the monkey had to decide which he wanted. The ape looked back and forth, scratched his head, then chose the banana as expected. But then he unexpectedly takes the banana and uses it as a spoon to eat the banana yogurt. A very funny idea. To demonstrate that even a banana expert would choose the yogurt to shoot that commercial, two monkeys were flown up from Los Angeles, because where else do you find monkeys with agents? There was a lead monkey and a backup monkey. They arrived wearing diapers. As they were both under three years of age. The handler said young monkeys are more trainable and controllable. The handler had spent a few weeks training the monkeys to sit at the table. Look at the two options. Choose the banana, then use it as a spoon to eat the yogurt. Everything was set to go. Then suddenly, the lead monkey got the hiccups, which lasted for three hours. So the handler had to go to the backup monkey. It took a little more time, but the second monkey pulled it. A very funny commercial. When the shoot ended, Paul Lavoie marveled at how smart the monkeys were. Actually, said the monkey handler, these are the dumbest monkeys I could find. Paul said, what do you mean? The handler went on to explain that just like people, there are smart monkeys and not so smart monkeys. A smarter, older monkey could be taught to do everything the commercial required in just a few hours, as opposed to the weeks it took to train the less intelligent monkeys. But the handler knew there would be multiple takes required that the director and the client and a bunch of other people would be asking for changes and nuances to speed up or slow down. And the dumb monkeys have the most patience. The smart monkey would get bored waiting for all the decisions to get made and would start acting up. The dumb one would just sit there and repeat the actions over and over again, demonstrating that a low IQ can be very appealing.
- [28:39]
A
Your team just added its 67th AI tool and also your 67th security blind spot. The good news? The Vanta Agent works like a GRC engineer in the background finding every app your team uses, scoring the risk and drafting fixes for you. Vanta is the platform used by over 16,000 fast moving companies like Ramp, Cursor and Harvey who are shaping the future with AI and staying ahead of AI risk. Get started@vanta.com this year's girls trip to
- [29:07]
C
Telluride was the best. We one upped ourselves with my Sapphire preferred card and with 5 times points on Chase travel plus 3 times points on vacation homes with top brands, we got this incredible cabin. It was a mansion and with three times the points on dining. We ordered a Wagyu steak dinner and that pistachio gelato was too good. So where should we go next year? I've got ideas. Chase Sapphire preferred the card that's preferred for a reason. Cards issued by JPMorgan Chase bank and a member FDIC subject to credit approval terms apply. Close your eyes, exhale, feel your body relax and let go of whatever you're carrying today. Well, I'm letting go of the worry that it wouldn't get my new contacts in time for this class. I got them delivered free from 1-800-contacts. Oh my gosh, they're so fast. And breathe. Oh sorry. I almost couldn't breathe when I saw the discount they gave me on my first order. Oh sorry. Namaste. Visit 1-800contacts.com today to save on your first order.
- [30:04]
A
1-800-contacts.
- [30:11]
B
A dramatic product demonstration will always be the holy Grail in advertising. It strips away exaggeration, puffery and the need to manufacture a storyline, and it shows you how the product solves a problem or delivers a promise in such a memorable and surprising way. Your eyebrows shoot up like that 3M unbreakable glass stunt in Vancouver and that demonstration convinces you to buy the product. But the world is shifting. AI is really going to test our reserve when it comes to seeing is believing, because deepfakes are remarkably realistic but still fake. That's why governments are scrambling to put some guardrails on AI development. But the toothpaste may already be out of the tube. Instead of being easier to demonstrate a product dramatically, I actually think it will become more difficult to amaze people because I Can't Believe My Eyes is slowly turning into I Can't Believe My Eyes when you're under the influence. I'm Terry O'Reilly. This episode was recorded in the Terrastream Airstream Mobile Recording studio producer Debbie O'Reilly sound engineer Jeff Devine under the Influence Themed by Ari Posner and Ian LeFever Tunes provided by APM Music Follow me on Social Erryoinfluence this podcast is powered by Acast and if you'd like to read next week's Fun Fact, just go to ApostrophePodcasts CA and follow the prompts to record it. See you next time. Hi, this is Scenery Slater from Denman island, bc. Fun Fact Believe it or not, it is actually illegal to buy a mattress on Sundays in Washington State, but the police don't lose any sleep over it.
- [32:28]
A
Your team just added its 67th AI tool and also your 67th security blind spot. The good news? The Vanta Agent works like a GRC engineer in the background finding every app your team uses, scoring the risk and drafting fixes for you. Vanta is the platform used by over 16,000 fast moving companies like Ramp Cursor and Harvey who are shaping the future with AI and staying ahead of AI risk. Get started@vanta.com this year's girls trip to
- [32:55]
C
Telluride was the best. We one upped ourselves with my Sapphire preferred card and with 5 times points on Chase travel plus 3 times points on vacation homes with top brands. We got this incredible cabin. It was a mansion and with three times the points on dining, we ordered a Wagyu steak dinner and that pistachio gelato was too good. So where should we go next year? I've got ideas. Chase Sapphire preferred the card that's preferred for a reason. Cards issued by JP Morgan, Chase bank and a member FDIC subject to credit approval terms apply. Could AI help you do more of what you love? Workday is the AI platform for HR and finance that actually knows your business. We help you handle the have to DOS so you can focus on the can't wait to dos. It's a new Workday.
- [33:39]
A
Now is your time to get into a new Dr. Horton home by taking advantage of its national Red Tag sales event going on right now through Sunday, August 2nd. Stop by any of its participating communities and find select red tag homes at Incredible Pricing. So whether you're buying your first home or looking for an upgrade, you don't want to miss the red tag sales event going on right now. Discover the Dr. Horton Difference at Dr. Horton.com Dr. Horton America's Builder and Equal Housing Opportunity Builder.