Marketing contests can be tricky business.

 On one hand, contests can be designed to help companies achieve certain business goals.

 On the other hand, companies can lose control over them pretty quickly.

This week, we look at some of the most interesting – and hilarious – marketing contests.

 Including one about a city that held a contest to name a new building – and the public voted overwhelmingly to name it after a past mayor named Harry Baals.

True story.

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From our Season 12 Archives,

Billboards are one of the biggest creative challenges in the marketing world.

They need to be seven words or less.

They need to contain an idea.

And they need to communicate quickly as people speed by.

This week on Under The Influence, we look at the most creative billboards from around the world.

We’ll talk about a car maker that used tiny billboards to get inside their competitor’s vehicles.

How one airline used a billboard that could detect planes passing overhead.

And we’ll tell you the hilarious story of a billboard stunt gone wrong that involves a giant… muffin.

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Another favourite from our Season 12 Archives.

This week it’s our annual Bookmarks episode.

I read a lot of books to research Under The Influence. But every season, there isn’t enough room to include all the great stories I find.

So this episode is dedicated to those stories that didn’t fit into our regular episodes. But are so good, they are worth telling.

We’ll tell an amazing story about the book Goodnight Moon.

We’ll tell you why David Bowie seemed to have two different-coloured eyes.

We’ll talk about why inspiration is 90% perspiration and the inside story of the historic music score from the movie Jaws.

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From our Season 12 Archives... another favourite.

You’ve probably seen those Red Bull Mini Coopers driving around town with the giant Red Bull can on their roofs.

This week on Under The Influence, we look at the wild and wacky world of marketing mobiles.

 They’ve actually been around for over 100 years.

We’ll crack open the story behind the Planters Peanut Nutmobiles.

 We’ll take to the skies to tell you an amazing story behind the famous Goodyear blimps.

 And we’ll tell the story of the famous Oscar Meyer Wienermobiles.

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There are some very interesting loopholes in the world of marketing.

Because businesses are always looking for an upper hand in a competitive category, loopholes can offer legal advantages.

A loophole can help a company overcome barriers in the marketplace. 

Sometimes, the way a product is marketed can give customers a loophole they can take advantage of.

And sometimes a 20-year-old kid can spot a loophole that panics a giant corporation.

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If you searched the question:

“What player has won the most Wimbledon singles titles,” Google will tell you it’s Roger Federer with 8 wins.

But that’s incorrect. Martina Navratilova has 9.

This week, we look at remarkable ideas that promote gender equality.

Including an idea called Correct the Internet.com

And one that challenged menstruation taboos with a program called “Touch the pickle.”

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The Beatlology Interviews (Season 2, Episode 1)

What if John Lennon had never died in 1980. What if George Harrison was still with us? What would it have taken to convince the Beatles to give one more major concert? In “Reunion: A Rock ’N Roll Fairy Tale” author Gary Burr tackles all those questions in a very entertaining novel. By the way, Gary has also played on nine Ringo Starr albums. He’s got some great inside stories.

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 20th century movies and TV shows were dominated by the traditional “hero.”

 With high morals and an ethical code of honour.

The 21st century has a different take.

Today, we cheer the anti-hero. Like the Sopranos, Dexter and Breaking Bad.

Anti-heroes are liberated from that line in the sand that holds the rest of us back. They do things we are afraid to do. And do it unapologetically.

And if advertising is the great mirror to pop culture, it just may explain the emergence of anti-hero brands – who dare you to like them.

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From our Season 12 Archives...

This week, we look at companies that have spent decades advertising to only one gender - then suddenly decide to approach the opposite sex. L’Oreal is now marketing makeup to men. Scotch distillers are now targeting women. And lingerie companies are now designing intimates for men. It’s a brand new, gender-bending world.

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From our Season 12 Archives.

Even though brand names are often protected by trademarks and copyrights, it’s remarkable how many times companies end up with the same names.

And they either get along – or they sue each other into oblivion.

This week, we look at “Brand Twins.”

We’ll talk about when Guns N’ Roses sued Guns and Rosé.

We’ll explain why there used to be the Saskatchewan Roughriders AND the Ottawa Rough Riders in the CFL.

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