Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly

This week, we take a look at Last Chance Tourism.

Tourism companies around the world have started to advertise specific destinations to travelers, because those locations have a very unique offering.

Namely, they are vanishing.

From glaciers, to polar bears, to the Amazon Rainforest. Marketers are using a strategy called “Loss Aversion” – where the emotional impact of a loss is felt more intensely than a gain.

So people are rushing to these locations, afraid they might miss their last chance to see them.

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This week, we look at the concept of “Genericide” – when brand names become generic. Many of the pioneering brands in our world risked losing their trademarks – as courts would rule that their names had become generic. Zipper, escalator and refrigerator were all trademarks at one time. The board game Monopoly just lost its trademark recently. Now brands like Kleenex and Band-Aid are fighting to save their valuable names. And their stories are fascinating.

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This week, we look at the phenomenon of Set Jetting. That’s when tourists flock to a city to see the sets and locations where their favourite TV shows and movies are filmed. Some towns have embraced set jetting as new-found tourism marketing. Other towns absolutely resent it. It’s a fascinating love/hate relationship.

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Recorded before a live audience at Reid’s Distillery, this episode lists some of the biggest brand fails of 2024.

We’ll talk about when Apple launched its thinnest computer ever, which led to a big fat PR problem.

We’ll look at a seasonal candle that fired up accusations of white supremacy.

And we’ll try and figure out how a children’s doll package ended up listing the URL for a porn site.

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This week, we take a look at one of the tools of political marketing – the campaign song.

Politicians have used songs going all the way back to at least the 1700s.

Sometimes the songs are written expressly for the political party or candidate.

Sometimes, politicians co-opt pop songs.

And sometimes, pop artists have a major problem with that.

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