Podcast Summary

Podcast: Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly
Episode: Touch The Pickle: Marketing Gender Equality
Date: October 4, 2025
Host: Terry O’Reilly (Apostrophe Podcast Network)

Episode Overview

In this engaging episode, Terry O’Reilly explores how recent marketing and advertising campaigns have gone beyond traditional messaging to drive tangible gender equality and societal change worldwide. From floating islands in Honduras, to correcting sexist algorithms, to dismantling taboos about menstruation in India, Terry details the innovative—and often audacious—ways agencies have spurred women’s empowerment. The episode is rich with storytelling, data, and memorable moments that expose both old injustices and new creative solutions.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Overlooked Story of Jackie Mitchell

[03:15]

Terry starts with the story of Jackie Mitchell, a 17-year-old woman who struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in a 1931 exhibition baseball game.
- Despite her extraordinary achievement, she was quickly sidelined:
  
  "Jackie Mitchell beat Ruth and Gehrig, but she didn't actually win because she didn’t get to keep her contract.” (03:15)
The story illustrates how women’s achievements are often erased or minimized—a theme echoed throughout the episode.

2. The Glass Lion Award & Smashing the Ceiling

[09:01]

Terry explains the Cannes Lions Festival’s Glass Lion award, reserved for campaigns that create real, tangible impact on gender inequality, noting:

"...work that not only calls attention to gender inequality, but ... actually makes a tangible difference." (09:34)
He introduces several award-winning, culture-shifting campaigns.

3. Bold Change in Honduras: “Morning After Island”

[10:21]

In Honduras, emergency contraception is outlawed, and misinformation is rampant.
Lacking resources and institutional support, activists and Ogilvy created a literal floating platform in international waters—Morning After Island—where women could legally access the pill.
- The effort generated enormous global attention:
  - 2 million petition signatures
  - $30 million in free media
  - 180 million video views (12:55)
- Most importantly, it pressured the government, resulting in:
  
  “The President formed a new Ministry of Women's Rights to collaborate on a legislative proposal defending women’s sexual, reproductive, and civil rights.” (14:06)
The campaign demonstrates advertising’s power to facilitate both immediate aid and lasting policy influence.

4. Correcting Gender Bias in the Internet’s Algorithms

[17:37]

Terry discusses a moment at Wimbledon where Andy Murray corrected a reporter who overlooked women’s achievements—an example of how even “the internet” overlooks women.
DDB New Zealand's CorrectTheInternet.com campaign targets search engine errors that elevate male achievements over superior female records.
- Example errors include sports:
  - “Which player has won the most Wimbledon singles titles?"
    
    "The Internet says Roger Federer with eight. The statistics say it's Martina Navratilova with nine.” (19:54)
- The campaign allows users to quickly report gendered inaccuracies via correcttheinternet.com.
- The internet’s algorithms reflect human bias, but Terry urges active correction:
  
  “The Internet has learned our human bias towards men. It’s a problem we all created. But by using correcttheinternet.com, it’s a problem we have the power to fix.” (21:40)

5. Data Tienda – Recognizing Women's Informal Credit in Mexico

[23:32]

In Mexico, millions of low-income women are barred from entrepreneurship due to lack of credit history (83% have none).
We Capital and their agency used a unique approach: leveraging unrecognized credit logs from local shopkeepers (Data Tienda = "Data Shop") to formalize women’s credit.
- Women submit shopkeeper records on the Data Tienda site.
- Result:
  - 10,000+ registrations
  - 2,300+ microloans granted to women entrepreneurs
- Insight:
  
  “At first glance, it appeared women had no credit histories, but that wasn’t the actual problem. … They just weren’t being recognized by major lending institutions. Women were invisible to the banking industry.” (25:43)

6. Busting Menstruation Taboos in India: ”Touch The Pickle”

[26:27]

In India, menstruation-related taboos restrict girls from normal activities—including a particularly odd one: not touching pickles, which are believed to spoil on contact.
Whisper (P&G) and advertising agency BBDO launched the “Touch the Pickle” campaign, using the pickle taboo as a metaphor to break larger menstrual and gender taboos.
- The campaign included a viral video where a young woman defies the pickle taboo, inspiring others to pledge to "touch the pickle."
- Notable campaign results:
  - 2.9 million pledges to “touch the pickle”
  - $6.1 million in earned media
  - Massive jump in brand awareness (from 21% to 90%)
  - Bollywood celebrities joined the conversation
- Emphasizing the campaign’s empowering effect:
  
  “With the hashtag #touchthepickle, Whisper invited anthropologists, comedians, and the media to make taboo a topic of public debate.” (28:34)

7. Why These Campaigns Matter

[31:55]

Terry closes by reiterating how invisibility—historically and algorithmically—suppresses women’s achievements:

"Women are represented in only 0.5% of recorded history, proving they are all too easily erased and their accomplishments all too easily forgotten." (31:55)
These campaigns are more than ads—each corrected a real-world injustice and contributed directly to women’s empowerment, visibility, and opportunity.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

“Jackie Mitchell beat Ruth and Gehrig, but she didn’t actually win because she didn’t get to keep her contract.” (03:15 – Terry O’Reilly)
“The Glass Lion is given to work…that actually makes a tangible difference.” (09:34 – Terry O’Reilly)
“If denied rights on land, they took to the sea.” (13:56 – On Morning After Island)
“The Internet has learned our human bias. … It’s a problem we all created. But… it’s a problem we have the power to fix.” (21:40 – Terry O’Reilly)
“At first glance, it appeared women had no credit histories, but that wasn’t the actual problem. … They just weren’t being recognized.” (25:43 – Terry O’Reilly)
“It’s amazing what you can achieve when you dare to touch the pickle.” (29:55 – Terry O’Reilly)

Timestamps for Key Segments

Jackie Mitchell’s Story: 03:15 – 08:46
Cannes Glass Lion & Morning After Island: 09:01 – 15:40
Correct the Internet Campaign: 17:37 – 22:35
Data Tienda (Mexico): 23:32 – 26:27
Touch the Pickle (India): 26:27 – 31:55
Conclusion/Big Picture: 31:55 – 33:27

Tone and Language

Terry O’Reilly mixes factual storytelling with wry humor and compassion, using memorable anecdotes and statistical data to highlight both the frustrating absurdities of structural bias and the creativity that can overcome it.

For Listeners Who Missed the Episode

This episode is a masterclass in how marketing can create real-world social change. It exposes how women’s achievements are ignored, erased, or diminished, but also showcases inventive campaigns that address these inequalities head-on—sometimes literally sailing into uncharted waters. Packed with practical examples, emotional punch, and actionable ideas, it’s both inspiring and a call to action: even a single report or conversation can help rewrite the rules for gender equality.

Transcript

A (0:01)

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B (2:55)

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

A (3:15)

Since 1851, the obits in the New York Times have been dominated by white men. But with a column called Overlooked, the Times has been adding stories of remarkable people whose deaths went unreported. One of those stories caught my eye. It was about a woman named Jackie Mitchell back in 1931. Mitchell was just 17 years old. What made her unusual was the fact she was on the roster of an all male minor league baseball team in Tennessee called the Chattanooga Lookouts. Mitchell was the only female pitcher in the league. She threw left handed and had a very deceptive sinker in her pitching repertoire. The owner of the Chattanooga Lookouts was a publicity seeker and probably felt the novelty of a female pitcher would draw fans during the depths of the Depression. The week after Mitchell's professional contract was signed, the New York Yankees were on their way back from spring training and stopped off in town for an exhibition game. 4000 Chattanooga Lookout fans were in the stands and Jackie Mitchell took to the mound in the first inning. The crowd stirred when the mighty Babe Ruth stepped up to the plate. He swung hard at the first pitch and missed. He swung even harder at the second pitch as it whistled by him. At that point, Ruth demanded that the umpire inspect the ball. He was utterly baffled by the pitcher's delivery and thought there had to be something suspicious going on. The umpire took a good long look at it, then yelled, play ball. The third pitch sailed right past Ruth and just left him standing there looking at Mitchell. When the umpire called him out, the Bambino flung his bat away in disgust. Next up was Lou Gehrig. He took what a reporter described as three hefty swings and was struck out too young. Jackie Mitchell received a standing ovation. Next inning, a pitcher replaced Mitchell and her team proceeded to lose to the mighty Yankees. 14 4. The next day the New York Times ran an article headlined Girl Pitcher Fans Ruth and Gehrig. Many wondered if the two strikeouts were real or just a stunt to draw press attention. It just seemed improbable that a 17 year old girl could strike out two of the best hitters in the game. Jackie Mitchell had learned to play baseball under the tutelage of her father and the family lived close to future hall of Famer Dazzy Vance, who was considered the premier strikeout pitcher of the 1920s. Vance taught her how to throw a drop ball, better known today as a sinker. And that day against the Yankees, she was up against batters who had never seen her before. She had a devastating sinker and being a lefty against two left handed batters gave her an advantage. The day after the infamous game, Jackie Mitchell's contract was cancelled. Many believe the baseball commissioner wanted her gone because he was embarrassed by the episode and that was nine years before the All American Girls Professional Baseball League was formed, which was immortalized in the movie A League of Their Own. Jackie Mitchell went on to pitch for a few other junior teams, but hung up her glove at the age of 23, then went to work in her father's optometry office. She died in 1987 at the age of 74. The former director of the National Women's History Museum says the problem with that infamous day was that Jackie Mitchell beat Ruth and Gehrig, but she didn't actually win because she didn't get to keep her contract. And she has been long forgotten. History and the Internet has a convenient way of overlooking female achievements. The advertising industry hasn't been particularly kind to women either. While there are a lot of women working in the ad biz, few of them were ever promoted to the top. While that is changing, some remarkable initiatives have been created by the advertising industry recently to promote gender equality. All of these ideas go well beyond mere advertising campaigns. They actually empower women, facilitate real change. And in one instance, that would make Jackie Mitchell happy. They actually correct the Internet.