O'Reilly on Advertising

O'Reilly on Advertising was a popular show that was broadcast Saturday mornings on CBC Radio One, running from 11:30 - 12:00pm (half an hour later in Newfoundland). Its host was Terry O'Reilly, who is a radio/voiceover director with a lengthy career. Its producer and co-creator was fellow adman and broadcaster Mike Tennant. The show is essentially a primer on media literacy, illustrating how advertisers create successful (or unsuccessful, as the case may be) radio ads. It ran for a total of 25 episodes, not including repeats, and concluded airing on December 31, 2005.

Some of the topics covered in the series include branding, the effective use of tag-lines, the Lion Advertising Awards at Cannes, and Public Service messages. It also examined why some advertising campaigns win or fail, how good copywriting can make a difference, and also trends in ad creativity.

The show was produced independently for the CBC by Pirate Radio and Television in Toronto.

A CD set is for sale on the CBC Store website. It contains 10 of the 25 episodes and has a cover price of $49.95 Cdn. The liner notes for this set indicate that the included episodes are numbers 1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13 from the list below. The set is currently packaged in a black CD carry case with no external product information other than the set title.

In September 2006, O'Reilly returned to the airwaves with a follow-up series called The Age of Persuasion. The theme of the new series was advertising and marketing in the present age and how it affects every aspect of modern life and culture. [1] The new series began in 2006; its fourth season began in January 2010.