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Chapter 1: What is newsjacking and how is it used in marketing?
Hi, I'm Callie. I'm a co-founder of Apostrophe Podcasts alongside Terry, Debbie, and Sydney. We're a family business that brings you a family of podcasts. We also have a subscription option where you can listen ad-free, hear bonus episodes like my sit-down with Terry to ask him burning questions, or extended versions of Under the Influence episodes.
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We're going to show you our big new Studebaker. What love doesn't conquer. You're Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly.
On September 19th, 2024, the television series titled Monsters! The Lyle and Eric Menendez Story streamed on Netflix. The nine-episode series debuted as the number one show on Netflix worldwide and was the most viewed streaming content, according to Nielsen. It earned 11 Emmy nominations, winning one and three Golden Globe nominations.
Needless to say, the high-profile show put the Menendez brothers back in the news. While the TV series let viewers reach their own conclusions about the verdict, it heightened the anticipation of the upcoming parole hearing scheduled for the brothers, who had been incarcerated for 35 years. And all that news heightened the demand for a certain basketball card.
Mark Jackson was a point guard in the NBA. He played from 1987 until 2004. Jackson was with a number of teams in his career, including playing 54 games for the Toronto Raptors in the 2000-2001 season. Jackson had a pretty good career and is number six on the all-time assist list. As with all NBA players, his image was on a trading card every year.
But one of his cards in particular is a collector's item. Specifically, his 1990 card when he played for the New York Knicks. The reason Jackson's 1990 card is so valuable has nothing to do with his career, nothing to do with points scored or games played. It all has to do with the photo on the trading card. The card shows Jackson passing the ball to his right with the crowd behind him.
But if you look closely to Jackson's left, sitting courtside, are the two Menendez brothers. The photo was taken when the brothers were attending a Knicks game at Madison Square Garden after the murder of their parents in 1989, a year before their arrests in 1990. During that period, the Menendez brothers used the insurance money they inherited to finance a lavish lifestyle.
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Chapter 2: How did a ladder company capitalize on a Louvre heist?
Timing is everything in the world of marketing, too. And leveraging news stories that go viral is becoming a valuable marketing tactic. The official term is newsjacking, when a brand hijacks a breaking news story and creates a second story that gains attention. Newsjacking requires very little effort, just a little creativity to link the brand to the story, and a very quick turnaround.
When done right, it can massively expand the reach of a brand, all without spending one dollar on media. When it goes wrong, it's just massively embarrassing.
You're under the influence.
On Sunday, October 19, 2025, thieves mounted a daring daylight break-in at the Louvre in Paris. At 9.30 a.m. local time, thieves disguised as construction workers extended a long, motorized furniture ladder with a bucket up to a balcony. To passing pedestrians and motorists, nothing seemed amiss. It looked like yet another maintenance project at the Louvre.
the thieves climbed into the motorized bucket and silently raised it up the ladder to the balcony, where they smashed a window. Once inside, they cut into the display cases, grabbing eight pieces of the crown jewels worth 88 million euros. Then, they jumped back into the bucket, lowered it down the ladder to the street, and escaped on scooters. Total time inside the Louvre? Four minutes.
It was a brazen and shocking robbery. News of the heist spread like a wildfire around the world. While news of the robbery stunned the public, it was particularly fascinating to a certain German company called Booker. As they watched the news footage, they suddenly noticed something and zoomed in.
That's when they realized the motorized furniture ladder the thieves had used and left behind was in fact made by their company. It was a Booker Agilo furniture ladder. That made the news doubly shocking to them. But once they realized no one was hurt in the robbery, they decided to take advantage of the story by using a little humor. The very next day, the Booker company created an ad.
It featured a photo of the actual Booker furniture ladder leaning up against the Louvre balcony. The headline said, The next time you need things to move quickly... The ad went on to say, the Booker Agilo transports your treasures, weighing up to 400 kilograms at 42 meters a minute, whisper quiet, thanks to its electric motor. They placed that ad on social media.
Booker says the response to the newsjacking was overwhelming. The company's Instagram and Facebook pages usually reach around 15,000 people. That ad reached 1.7 million. And 99% of the reactions were positive. It was a crown jewel example of newsjacking. The Louvre heist story went viral. The story was relevant to the Booker brand.
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Chapter 3: What viral moment did Taylor Swift's concerts create for the British Geological Survey?
She performed there three nights in a row, and during all three concerts, the British Geological Survey registered seismic movement. That seismic movement came from the audiences at the Taylor Swift concerts. The BGS put out a news release stating that Taylor Swift's fans made the Earth move.
While I've talked about swift quakes before, the British Geological Survey Organization went one step further. It actually calculated which songs caused the biggest commotion. Taylor Swift's shows are precisely timed and exquisitely choreographed, so every show runs at exactly the same time intervals every night. Therefore, the seismic spikes occurred at the same points every night.
One of the volcanologists from the BGS attended the Swift concerts and took photos and videos of each song, which then allowed the BGS to cross-reference when seismic spikes happened in relation to the time stamps on the photos. So, according to the British Geological Survey Organization, the following three Taylor Swift songs created the most seismic movement.
Cruel Summer, Ready For It, and Champagne Problems. Those were the songs that caused the 73,000 nightly fans to dance, cheer, and stomp the most. The Swifties generated 8 kilowatts or 80,000 watts of power. And the largest movement of the earth wasn't actually during a song. It occurred during the four minutes of applause after the song Champagne Problems.
That particular movement was detected by two different monitoring stations, the furthest being 6 kilometers, or 3.7 miles away. It was kind of a seismic moment for the BGS, as its news story got shared around the world.
BGS
Back in 2016, news of a certain Hollywood divorce took international media by storm. And it wasn't just any Hollywood couple. It was Hollywood royalty. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were splitting up. The split consumed gossip magazines, newspaper column inches, and TV screens.
That was when Norwegian Airlines decided to newsjack the conversations that were taking place around water coolers, coffee shops, and offices around the world. To promote Norwegian Airlines' low fare from Oslo to Los Angeles, it ran a large ad in newspapers. The ad simply said, Brad is single. Oslo to Los Angeles one way, 169 pounds.
It was a very funny, quick response to the news of the breakup. It also demonstrated how nimble Norwegian Airlines is. I don't think big North American airlines could move that fast or be that bold. Norwegian Airlines says it has a challenger brand mentality, meaning they're not afraid to disrupt the industry and shake up the status quo. They gain market share by being bold.
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Chapter 4: How did Norwegian Airlines leverage celebrity news for advertising?
Thousands of women began opening up about why they stayed in violent relationships. While the key to newsjacking is to move quickly, sometimes brands can move too quickly. DiGiorno Pizza tweeted the hashtag why I stayed, then added, you had pizza. It got a torrent of backlash. Soon after, DiGiorno tweeted, a million apologies. Did not read what the hashtag was about before posting.
And therein lies the tripwire with newsjacking. It has to happen quickly, but it still requires quick homework first. Back in 2019, news emerged that McDonald's had lost its Big Mac trademark in Europe. McD's lost the trademark after a nine-year legal battle with an Irish fast food chain called Supermax.
Supermax was founded in 1978 by Pat McDonough, and Mac was his nickname when he was a college Gaelic football player. Super Macs had faced opposition from McDonald's over the naming of some of its menu items, like a burger called the Mighty Mac, which shared many ingredients with the Big Mac. McDonald's suggested that the similarity in names might confuse customers.
Super Macs argued that McDonald's lawsuits were preventing the chain from expanding outside of Ireland. So, the case was put before the European Union Intellectual Property Office. When the final decision was made, it sided with Supermax, saying McDonald's hadn't proven genuine use of the Big Mac trademark in the EU.
Specifically, McDonald's had lost the Big Mac trademark when it came to chicken burgers because it had not used the trademark continuously for five years, which trademark law requires. That left the Big Mac trademark up for grabs. Super Macs rejoiced, saying it was a victory for all small businesses. That news also delighted Burger King in Sweden.
The Swedish Burger King couldn't resist newsjacking the story. Because anybody could use the name Big Mac now, it created a limited-time menu called Not Big Macs. For example, it renamed a burger like a Big Mac, but actually big. A burger combo was named kind of like a Big Mac, but juicier and tastier. Another Big Burger was rechristened the Burger Big Mac Wished It Was.
Burger King then put out a video on social media that showed customers actually ordering their newly named burgers.
Anything but a Big Mac? Yes. Kind of like a Big Mac, but juicier and tastier. The burger Big Mac, which is... Anything but a Big Mac? I'd like a Big Mac, but actually big.
The not-Big Mac's newsjacking not only resulted in millions of media impressions, it was the best January sales week ever for Burger King in Sweden. When we come back, McDonald's takes a swing at newsjacking. During the 2014 election in India, voter turnout was historically low. 280 million of the 900 million citizens on the electoral register opted not to vote in the general election.
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Chapter 5: What went wrong with DiGiorno Pizza's newsjacking attempt?
I know, ma'am, but McPaneer is what you get.
Every time a young, voting-age customer came up to order, the staff chose what they got instead.
Yes, sir. This is what we have chosen for you today, sir. What do you mean by you chose for me? Sir, exactly, sir. I chose for you, sir.
When customers insisted they get what they ordered, the McDonald's staff explained what was going on.
I have paid for it. You better give me what I want. Yes, ma'am, but have you voted? What? Ma'am, you didn't vote, right? Ma'am, if you don't vote, you lose the right to choose.
When customers were finally given what they ordered, the liner on their food tray said, When you give up your vote, you give up your right to choose. Customers were then reminded that the voting booths were still open and they had time to cast their vote. A video was created from that day and was posted on social media where it attracted a big reaction. The hashtag was Make Your Choice.
Did it help? Possibly. Voter turnout in that election was 67%, the highest ever in a general Indian election. Specsavers is one of my favorite advertisers. It always does very funny, effective ads. In one television commercial, a woman marches into a restaurant and is shocked to find her bearded husband dining with another woman.
How could you do this to me, Barry?
She throws a glass of water in his face. That's when she hears this. I'm over here, Bev. Her actual husband, also bearded, is sitting at another table. Specsavers. Sponsors Emmerdale.
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Chapter 6: How did McDonald's engage in newsjacking during the Indian election?
There's a mistake. Moonlight, you guys won best picture. Moonlight won it. This is not a joke. This is not a joke. I'm afraid they read the wrong thing.
Moonlight. Best picture. It was unbelievable. A colossal mix-up. Only two people from Price Waterhouse know the winners beforehand. They alone bring the classic red envelopes and closely held briefcases to the Oscars that night. Their job is to guard the envelopes and hand them to the right presenter.
When it came time for the best picture, the biggest award of the night, the Pricewaterhouse person handed the wrong envelope to Warren Beatty. Instead of the one that said Moonlight was the winner, Beatty was given the envelope that said Emma Stone had won Best Actress for La La Land, which was a previous award that evening. That's why Beatty hesitated when he looked at the card.
He knew it was wrong, but it was the card he was handed. When he gave the card to Faye Dunaway to read out loud, her eyes went straight to La La Land. As you can imagine, that Oscar screw-up was big news that shot around the world. And good old Specsavers saw a perfect newsjacking opportunity.
The very next morning after the Oscars, it put up digital billboards that said, Not Getting the Best Picture? The billboard showed a card being pulled out of a red envelope in front of an audience. The writing on that card said, Should have gone to Specsavers. The concept of newsjacking has been around for a while, but it is clearly becoming an increasingly popular marketing tactic.
For brands, it offers the potential to gain a lot of attention. It requires a nimble team to first spot an opportunity, then quickly create an ad while the story is still hot, then toss it out into the world and cross their fingers. Newsjacking is almost always a double-edged sword. Lots of people laughed at the Louvre Ladder ad, but others thought it was in bad taste.
The British Geological Survey and Norwegian Airlines had fun jumping on news stories. And the Specsavers Oscars ad was a hoot. But it didn't go so well for DiGiorno Pizza. The upside, of course, is that newsjacking doesn't cost any media dollars. The downside is that brands have to jump on a news story immediately with virtually no time for contemplation or second-guessing.
Sometimes you catch lightning in a bottle. Sometimes it goes horribly sideways. And sometimes it gets weird. Just ask Mark Jackson when you're under the influence. I'm Terry O'Reilly This episode was recorded in the Terrestrial Mobile Recording Studio. Producer, Debbie O'Reilly. Chief Sound Engineer, Jeff Devine. Theme music by Casey Pick, Jeremiah Pick, and James Aiton.
Tuneage provided by APM Music. Follow me at Terry O'Influence. This podcast is powered by ACAST.
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Chapter 7: What humorous ad did Specsavers create following the Oscars mix-up?
Terry's top slogans of all time. Number 22. Maxwell House Coffee. Good to the last drop. See you next week.