2025 Inductee

Terry O'Reilly

Radio

One of the first instances Terry O’Reilly understood the influence of advertising involved a duck. Or at least,
the idea of one.

It was early in his career and he’d just written a radio spot for DuPont’s Quallofil pillows – a product pitched as a soft, affordable alternative to down. The hook O’Reilly came up with? “Buy a Quallofil pillow, save a duck.” It was clever, lighthearted and unexpected. What happened next even surprised him. Sales doubled. It was a massive success. People called radio stations asking when the ad would run again. And just like that, O’Reilly was on the map.

“I was shocked,” he recalls. “It was just a little radio commercial. But it showed me how powerful creativity can be.” That sense of being captivated by persuasion never left him. For more than four decades, O’Reilly has helped shape some of the most iconic advertising in Canadian history. From beer to banking, symphonies to insulation, he’s worked across nearly every category, guided by one core obsession: What makes people tick?

Having lived in Sudbury, Ontario, O’Reilly learned to lean on his curiosity and imagination. “We didn’t get a lot of media signals up there,” he says. “You had to use your imagination.” It also helped him develop a connection to the everyday Canadian – “the person who takes the early bus to work,” as he puts it – and to, eventually, always write with them in mind. He learned to listen and to invent. His career, which spans broadcast radio, television and podcasts, is built on listening closely to audiences, to clients, to culture. “I’ve always loved the puzzle of advertising,” he says. “I’m fascinated by human nature. How can you create a strategy and then express it so creatively that
people actually like the ad?”

As an award-winning copywriter for Toronto agencies Campbell-Ewald, DDB and Chiat/Day, he crafted campaigns for brands such as Labatt, Molson, Pepsi USA, Goodyear Tires, Tim Hortons, Volkswagen, Nissan and the Hudson’s Bay Company. During those years, he learned how to apply a mix of rigorous research, emotional storytelling and a razor-sharp sense of tone. “You can have a brilliant concept,” he says, “but if the tone is wrong for the brand, the whole thing collapses. It’s that invisible thing you can’t point to, but you feel it.”

That same spirit led to the founding of Pirate Radio & Television in 1990. O’Reilly co-created and grew the shop into one of the most influential audio production studios in Canada. “It started as a radio shop,” he says. “No visuals, no wardrobe, no faces – just writing. Someone once introduced me as the guy who built a company based on his sense of humour. I’d never thought of it that way, but it was true.”

Yet his reach extended far beyond agency walls. In 2005, O’Reilly became a household name through CBC Radio’s The Age of Persuasion, later followed up by Under the Influence, a show about advertising in all its forms – branding, marketing, PR, media – and its deep ties to culture. Twenty seasons later, Under the Influence is still one of the most-listened-to shows on CBC. It’s a testament to what has always driven O’Reilly: narrative.

Whether breaking down a Super Bowl spot or unpacking a wartime PSA, he crafts stories that stick.

“[O’Reilly] is one of the best storytellers on the planet, full stop,” says Nancy Vonk, co-founder of Swim. “The fact that he uses his superpower to bring to life mindboggling, little-known stories of advertising through the decades is a phenomenal service to a poorly documented industry. [His work] has left an indelible, utterly unique imprint
on the ad world and beyond.”

O’Reilly’s love of storytelling also made its way into print. His 2017 book *This I Know: Marketing Lessons from Under the Influence* distils years of his experience into practical insights for small- and medium-sized businesses (especially those without big agencies on speed dial).

Still, O’Reilly speaks with a deep sense of humility. Getting him to specifically point to what made him so good at his job is a little fruitless. Perhaps the secret to his success is this blend of curiosity, craftsmanship and groundedness. “I’ve always been a student of advertising,” he says. “I read every book. I studied the greats. Bill Bernbach, David Ogilvy, Leo Burnett. I had mentors I never met. And I had real-life ones too, like Trevor Goodgoll, who taught me how to think.”

He still considers himself a student, especially in an era reshaped by digital and social media. The shift, he says, marked a seismic change in advertising. “For the first time, it wasn’t just brands speaking. Audiences could respond, complain, critique or compliment. Suddenly, companies had to be accountable in public. It changed everything.”

As he looks back on four decades in the industry, O’Reilly is most proud of the work that surprised even him, such as a Toronto Symphony Orchestra audio-only spot that defied a difficult brief, and boosted ticket sales. Or the TV ads for fibreglass insulation, a product so mundane that the client challenged him to “make it famous.” He did. So much so that the brand eventually captured 70% of the market.

“To be inducted into the Hall of Marketing Gold,” he says, “and to be recognized alongside the people I’ve admired my whole career – it’s the highest honour. I never set out for this. I just followed the storytelling.”

In the end, O’Reilly’s career isn’t about flash; it’s about craft, storytelling and finding the exact right words to reach someone – whether they’re buying a beer, a pillow or just trying to understand the advertising world a little better.