If you wish to listen to podcasts for Age of Persuasion, Alien Nation, Diet for a Hungry Planet and Revision Quest go to CBC Podcasts

It’s no surprise that a lot of today’s Ads would never have aired in our parent’s time. But guess what? Many Ads from the past would never be tolerated today. This week Terry O’Reilly explains how Advertising is a kind of time capsule: reflecting the tastes and tolerances of a given time. And how quickly those tolerances can change.

This week Terry O’Reilly explains why so few advertisers use “facts” to build their brand, and why the best way to win a consumer’s business is through the heart. He’ll show how even low-interest products use emotion to build their brands, and he’ll explain how emotion has driven sales of a popular breakfast cereal for three generations.

Bill Clinton’s electoral victory of 1992 owed much to a four word phrase created by advisor James Carville: “It’s the economy, stupid”. It wasn’t an idea, or a slogan, but an insight. Join Terry O’Reilly as shows why an insight is at the heart of modern persuasion, and how insights fuel great ideas, art, and inventions.

After thirty years of hearing “I hate advertising”, Terry’s springing to the defense of his industry. Will he argue that all advertising is great? No. But he will make a case that maybe, just maybe, it doesn’t suck as much as some people like to think.

This week, Terry O’Reilly tugs on Superman’s cape, he spits in the wind; more recently he was seen inquiring as to the whereabouts of the Lone Ranger. In this surly frame of mind, Terry makes the case of the defence of advertising in modern culture. By the magic of radio, he’ll show you what the world would be like… if advertising had never been born. Then he’ll take you on a tour, and show you why an ad-free world might not be the cultural paradise some might imagine.

He’ll explain the strategy that changed the fortunes of the Paris Metro, how the strategy of changing one word ignited one of the continent’s fastest-growing industries; and he’ll explain why “second place” in your mind can be the best place for some brands to reside.

Try Googling the phrase “Award-Winning”. Go on; we’ll wait. See? 71 million hits. Join Terry O’Reilly – wait- the “award winning” Terry O’Reilly – as he explores the persuasive power of those two little words in our culture. He’ll play- yes- award-winning ads, and examine the self-congratulatory side of our culture.

We’ll review the decision of Lowe’s Home Building Centres to pull their sponsorship of “Big Brother 9″ after a remark about “retards” by one of the contestants. We’ll talk about Ed Sullivan refusing to televise Elvis’s hips, his curbing of the Stones’ lyrics for “Let’s Spend the Night Together”, and his attempt to soften the Doors’ “Light My Fire”.

This week Terry O’Reilly explores ways marketers breathe new life into dying brands. He’ll show you how brands such as Special ‘K’ have hiked sales- not by changing their product, but by changing the ‘idea’ of their product. Then he’ll show you how Hollywood celebrities have used the same principle to re-invent- and resurrect- their careers.

The Prime Minister has one. So do Microsoft, the CBC, and the Pope. They’ve all got a form of logo: a visual symbol, trademark or emblem that distinguishes who they are. Join Terry as he tells the stories behind some of the great logos and trademarks, and shows how today’s brand innovators are “translating” them into sound and even attitude.

Not long ago, the city of Boston was paralysed by a guerrilla marketing stunt: the placement of electronic signs with countdown clocks. Even more surprising was that the stunt was staged by a multi-billion dollar media empire. This week Terry O’Reilly examines why today’s biggest marketers are adopting street-level guerrilla marketing tactics. And he’ll introduce you to early guerrilla marketing pioneers; among them: Thomas Edison and Harry Houdini.

Here’s a headline you’ll never, ever see in your daily paper: “Nothing Happened”. Terry O’Reilly describes the ugly circle that drives modern newsgathering: how reporting takes money, how the need from money means attracting advertisers, how pleasing advertisers requires a vast audience, and how the need for a vast audience affects news content, and the way it’s presented.

He explores the cult of personality that drives TV newscasts, and traces the history of newsgathering to a handful of distance runners in ancient Greece.

Instead of using advertising to reach teenage males, Burger King created its own series of Xbox 360 games, featuring its “King” character. After two million sales in just five weeks, Burger King equates the number of “brand impressions” to that of 13 Super Bowl ads.

When General Electric wanted to promote its brand at the Beijing Olympics, the tactic it chose was infrastructure. Instead of expensive Olympic advertising, GE helped build a water filtration plant, through which it hopes its brand will resonate for years.

This week, Terry O’Reilly explains how Pyle changed sports forever, and why marketers so eagerly assume the expense, and the risk, of putting their product in the hands of a star athlete. Then, he’ll give you a peek at the marketing playbook, and show you what distinguishes a ‘star’ from a ‘superstar’.

Major campaign ads are assembled by hand-picked “dream teams” comprised of many of the greatest creative minds in the business. Yet somehow these campaigns invariably descend into a paint-by-numbers litany of personal attacks and stratospheric promises.

To voters they’re a blight, but to broadcasters, they’re manna from heaven: prompting hefty airtime buys from warring parties, and fueling news and political panel shows (who respond in kind: giving free airtime to the more incendiary ads.)