This week, it’s our annual Brand Envy episode.

Every year, I list four brands I’ve admired from a distance.

We’ll talk about a classic board game created by a Canadian couple.

An ice cream chain founded by another Canadian.

An iconic lighter that was named after a zipper.

And a woman who is dominating television these days.

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Every company dreams of doubling its profit.

It’s almost impossible to do.

Yet, some companies do it by tweaking one tiny thing.

We’ll talk about an industry that put three words on their packaging that doubled their profit.

A company that created a catchy jingle that doubled their revenue overnight.

And a business that changed one single word in a headline and their profit went up 100%.

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This week, we shoot for the moon.

Now that commercialized space travel has arrived, the world of marketing is setting its sights on the stars.

We’ll talk about ads on rocket ships, ads on spacesuits, and television commercials filmed on the International Space Station.

There are companies who want to employ hundreds of tiny satellites to create logos in the night sky.

Some companies even want to put ads on the moon.

And those ads might even be cheaper than Super Bowl commercials.

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Occasionally, an old advertising campaign is brought back from the dead.

Even if it has been off the air for decades.

This week, we’ll discuss a recurring Coke commercial that has been called the most popular ad of all time.

A much-loved beer campaign that has been revived after 34 years.

And a controversial commercial that was yanked off the air in 1989, but was re-run again recently.

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This week it’s our annual Bookmarks episode.

We read a lot of books to research Under The Influence.

But there’s never enough room to include all the great stories we find.

So this episode is dedicated to those great stories that didn’t fit into our regular episodes.

This year, our theme is bravery.

We’ll tell an amusing story about how Danny DeVito made a bold decision when he was auditioning for the sitcom Taxi.

We’ll salute Lucille Ball’s bravery.

And we’ll talk about how Jacques Plante revolutionized goaltending by being brave enough to defy his coach.

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Under the Influence fans know that at the very end of each episode there’s a Fun Fact – an interesting little tidbit related to the show. Well, this year we’re asking you, our listeners, to record that Fun Fact. All you need is a phone or computer. Just visit our Fun Fact Page, follow the prompts and have fun with it.

We choose two listeners every week – to be featured in the podcast and on CBC Radio.

Happy recording. Oh, and keep checking back. The latest Fun Fact is refreshed every week.

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This week, we go back in advertising history and take a look at the ads and commercials that could never, ever, EVER run today.

They are either so politically incorrect, so sexist, or so inappropriate, you won’t believe your ears.

From doctors recommending cigarettes, to 7-Up advertising to babies, to everyone singing about the joys of DDT, it’s amazing to think they all ran back in the day.

Ads that couldn’t run today.

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Almost every movie and television show needs cars, and auto companies are happy to supply them – because it helps sell a lot of cars.

We’ll look back at James Bond and Starsky & Hutch, and explore auto partnerships with movie franchises like Transformers and Marvel.

We’ll also tell a crazy story of how the most sought-after car from a Steve McQueen movie was finally found – and the cosmic coincidence that led to its discovery.

Cars are the stars.

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