Wings large and small, stylized and realistic鈥?Badges of more than 10 car companies incorporate this symbol of speed. The 鈥淰鈥?shape in the middle of the logo is made in an upturned wing style and looks very much like simplified cartoon sketches of birds in flight. The emblem is supposed to stand for Mazda鈥檚 desire to soar into the future. The logo comprising a winged shape with the word 鈥淐hrysler鈥?in the center was created after Chrysler merged with Fiat. However, even the first version of the company鈥檚 emblem created in 1924 also had flanking wings. This logo was created by Oliver Clark, who was one of the company鈥檚 engineers. In comparison with other automakers鈥?logos, Bentley鈥檚 emblem comprises one of the most realistic versions of spread wings. You can even notice a bird鈥檚 tail. This is one of the rare cases when logo doesn鈥檛 leave much room for misunderstanding. You may, for instance, remember the logo BMW has been having for several decades. It was considered to depict a stylized airplane propeller. It is only recently that the company explained that this was a mere coincidence, and in fact the logo wasn鈥檛 meant to represent a propeller.
A pair of wings has been present in Aston Martin鈥檚 emblem since 1927. The company鈥檚 name set on the green background is located front and center of the logo. The Skoda logo also has wings, but these aren鈥檛 wings of a bird. The emblem comprises a so-called winged arrow. In fact, it depicts an arrow and a feathered headdress of a Native American. The Chinese car company SAIC-GM-Wuling sells commercial and consumer vehicles under the Wuling and Baojun brands. The five-diamond "W" logo brings to mind a stylized flying bird. The 鈥渇lying A鈥?logo was purchased in 2015 by John Stubbs. He announced plans of reviving the company and manufacturing an all new Austin car. A winged badge that Mini cars wear has the brand鈥檚 name in a circular central area. The emblem made in retro style reminds that the company has British roots. The badge used by China's first domestic car maker represents a 鈥渇lying鈥?number one. The choice of colors reminds us that the auto manufacturer is a joint venture with GM. The British luxury car maker鈥檚 logo represents wings with the company鈥檚 name written over it. One more winged badge has the company鈥檚 name written on a blue cross in the center. Although the company declares that the logo depicts twin dragons rising up, in fact it does look like wings.
As the world of marketing gets more and more cluttered every day, it's forcing advertisers to get creative. From urinals and sheep to foreheads and armpits, welcome to the world of wacky ad spaces. Every year, the New York International Auto Show is held at the Javits Convention Centre in New York. At that show recently, Audi wanted to promote its new A4 model to the one million people who attend the event. But the car maker wanted a surprising way to reach those potential car buyers and it came up with this unexpected idea. As you may know, it's often hard to get a signal on your smartphone when you are in big convention centres. Too much interference means zero bars on your phone. So car shows usually provide visitors with a free Wi-Fi network they can jump onto while there. That's where Audi saw an opportunity. It offered to sponsor the Wi-Fi. Both were direct shots at competitor BMW. Every time car shoppers logged on to the car show Wi-Fi, they were given yet another reason to buy an Audi A4.
And over the course of the three-day event, they saw 328 reasons in total. And - imagine for a moment if you were a competitor of Audi and you had to log onto that Wi-Fi network every day of the car show. Imagine if you were BMW. Sponsoring the Wi-Fi: such an unexpected marketing idea. The company claims to save passengers an average of 43 per cent on rail tickets. The majority of travelers buy their tickets at the station - so their best strategy was to shepherd existing passengers over to their site. To do that, they partnered up with an ad agency and came up with an unorthodox strategy. Their idea was to advertise on sheep. Ewes, to be specific. Many train trips in the U.K. And passing herds of grazing sheep along the way comes with the territory. The accompanying TV and billboard campaign featured 40 sheep trained to step in and out of trains and even read newspapers.
And it got the sheep a lot of attention. As 55 per cent of men have facial hair, Cornett saw an opportunity. They created "beardboards" - tiny business card-sized ads that clip straight onto your beard. 5 a day to sport the tiny billboards for brands like A&W and Dollar Shave Club. Either way, it's a fascinating new strand of marketing. In the last few years, food companies have begun selling space on their fruit and vegetables. To market the movie, Universal made an unexpected partnership with Chiquita Bananas. More specifically, Chiquita Banana fruit stickers. Fruit stickers have been around since the 1990's - created with the sole purpose of expediting the checkout process. Each individual fruit has its own sticker containing a price look-up code for easy scanning. While most of us simply see them as something to peel off before taking a bite, Universal saw an opportunity: to create Minion-themed fruit stickers. The partnership made sense, as minions are yellow and one of the main character's favourite words is "banana." Each sticker would feature a different Minions character. Customers could download the Chiquita FanFun app and scan one of the 32 different stickers for instant access to games, prizes and even Minion-themed banana recipes. 1 billion dollars at the box office with many thanks鈥o bananas. For these stories and more from Under The Influence, click or tap on the "Listen" tab to hear the full episode. You can also find us on the CBC Radio app or subscribe to our Podcast. Under The Influence is recorded in the Terstream Mobile Recording studio - a 1969 Airstream trailer that's been restored and transformed into a studio on wheels. So host Terry O'Reilly can record the show wherever he goes.