The Age of Persuasion from CBC Radio

This week, The Age of Persuasion looks at how Madison Avenue invented... the housewife. Over 100 years ago, the advertising industry realized they had thousands of household products to sell. All they needed was a customer. So they invented the Happy Homemaker, and for the next 25 years, encouraged women to be stay-at-home moms. That strategy created the biggest business in the world: Housekeeping.

This week, the Age of Persuasion looks at the Great Women of Advertising. The Hall Of Famers who broke the rules, kicked open the doors and created some of the most famous advertising of our times.

It's our final episode of the 2011 season. This week, we turn The Age of Persuasion over to listeners. It's our annual "Ask Terry" show. We asked you to submit any questions you had about the advertising world, and you responded with a record amount of very interesting, very insightful ones that touch on subjects like negative political advertising, why there are so many bad local commercials, and what do background actors really say when their lips move.

This week, The Age of Persuasion looks at Diversity in Advertising. We'll trace the emergence of the minority market, the failure of Madison Avenue to recognize the spending power of that growing consumer base, and the struggles that people of colour had to be acknowledged as valued consumers. We'll also feature the first ads aimed at minorities, the first minority spokespeople, and the pioneers who broke ground.

This week, the Age of Persuasion invites you to our Book Club. I'll be telling stories from my favourite advertising books, and I'll examine the incredible lessons within their pages that have served me well over my entire career. By the way, a few of those books aren't even about advertising. In fact, one is a book about science, and another is about theatre actors.

This week, the Age of Persuasion features an encore broadcast of "Slogans." The word comes from the Gaelic, "Slaugh Gairn" which means, "cry of the host." We'll look at the greatest cries of all time, from "Finger Lickin' Good" to "Just Do It" to the phrase "Always a Bridesmaid, Never a Bride" - which most people don't know started as a slogan for Listerine. We'll examine why a small collection of words can worth millions, and how those words stay stuck in our minds for decades.

For the past 30 years, the advertising industry has worshipped at the altar of youth - because people 18 to 49 have the most disposable income. There's only one small problem with that - it isn't true. People 55+ spend the most money in almost all categories. They buy the most cars, spend the most on electronics, and control the most wealth. Yet advertisers aren't chasing them. Join us this week, as we try and figure out why a touch of grey keeps advertisers away.

Advertising has used sound to sell for decades. But sound can be used for more than painting pictures on radio - sound can be carefully created to persuade.

This week, the Age of Persuasion features an encore broadcast of "Opportunism in Advertising." Every now and then, marketers throw away the playbook, and create campaigns based on surprising opportunities that suddenly appear. Sometimes it's taking advantage of a news story, or a competitor's ad, or a new economic reality - or even the launch of the Space Shuttle. It takes courage and ingenuity, but when opportunism works, it can put a brand on the map.

This week, the Age of Persuasion looks at the concept of "Genericide" - when brand names become generic. If a product remains the number one brand for decades, it risks losing control of its trademark. Many pioneering brands suffered that fate. Just ask the board game "Monopoly," who lost the right to their own trademark recently. As a result, other big brands are fighting to prevent genericide - like Kleenex and Band-Aid. Their stories are fascinating

This week, The Age of Persuasion looks at part two of how Madison Avenue invented the Happy Homemaker. While advertising encouraged women to aspire to be housewives in the 50s and 60s, that stay-at-home stereotype was called out onto the carpet by a best-selling book titled The Feminine Mystique in 1963. That book and others like it helped fuel the embers of Women's LIb - which eventually led the Happy Homemaker to run smack into feminism in the 1970s. Women were now in the workforce in record numbers, but they were still balancing careers with motherhood. That juggling act would eventually create the next powerful archetype - which Madison Avenue would happily co-opt - and it would become the dominant female image to this day.

This week, The Age of Persuasion looks at how Madison Avenue invented... the housewife. Over 100 years ago, the advertising industry realized they had thousands of household products to sell. All they needed was a customer. So they invented the Happy Homemaker, and for the next 25 years, encouraged women to be stay- at-home moms. That strategy created the biggest business in the world: Housekeeping. The rest is advertising history.

This week on the Age of Persuasion, we look at "Dynamic Duos" - those rare ad agency/client relationships that resulted in some of the most famous advertising of all time.

We tell the stories of the marketers who took the biggest risks, and reaped the greatest rewards.

They are the ads that make everyone squirm - consumers, media and especially ad copywriters!