Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly

This week, we look at a humble marketing tool.
The Flexi Disc.
These razor-thin, flexible vinyl records had poor sound quality, but they helped sell cars, hit songs, chewing gum, soap operas and even Beatle records.
And in one case, a family won a million dollars with a flexi, and it nearly destroyed them.

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This week, we pay tribute to one of the greatest commercial directors in the ad business.
You may not know the late Joe Sedelmaier by name, but you certainly know his work.
He directed the famous “Fast Talking Man” ad for FedEx and a landmark commercial for Wendy’s that contained the line “Where’s the beef?”
I did several commercials with Sedelmaier, and he kicked me off the set of my own commercial once.
It’s a great story.

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This encore episode of Under The Influence is one of our favourites of 2026.

Lately, companies have been hijacking breaking news stories to create ads.
When thieves broke into the Louvre with a ladder, the ladder company quickly produced a tongue-in-cheek ad.
When the Oscars read the wrong Best Picture winner, an optometry chain made fun of the mix-up.
It’s called Newsjacking – and it’s becoming a powerful marketing tactic.
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This week, it’s our annual Bookmarks episode.
We read a lot of books to research this show. And this episode is dedicated to the great stories that didn’t fit into our regular season.
We’ll talk about the importance of numbers in marketing, and a hilarious tale about expense reports.
And we’ll tell a story about a doctor who was drummed out of the medical establishment all because he insisted doctors wash their hands.

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We're dropping an interview I recently did with Dr. Brian Goldman, host of White Coat, Black Art, an excellent CBC radio show and podcast into our feed. We're chatting about hospital advertising. And because they rely on fundraising, we discuss how effective hospital advertising is.

We thought you might find this topic interesting.

Enjoy.
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