The dangerous ad campaign
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- Опубліковано 13 січ 2024
- Adam Ragusea, Vanessa Hill and Stuart Ashen discuss a question about a product placement problem.
LATERAL is a weekly podcast about interesting questions and even more interesting answers, hosted by Tom Scott. For business enquiries, contestant appearances or question submissions, visit www.lateralcast.com
GUESTS:
Adam Ragusea: @aragusea
Vanessa Hill: @NessyHill, / nessyhill
Stuart Ashen: @ashens, / ashens
HOST: Tom Scott.
QUESTION PRODUCER: David Bodycombe.
RECORDED AT: The Podcast Studios, Dublin.
EDITED BY: Julie Hassett.
GRAPHICS: Chris Hanel at Support Class. Assistant: Dillon Pentz.
MUSIC: Karl-Ola Kjellholm ('Private Detective'/'Agrumes', courtesy of epidemicsound.com).
FORMAT: Pad 26 Limited/Labyrinth Games Ltd.
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: David Bodycombe and Tom Scott.
© Pad 26 Limited (www.pad26.com) / Labyrinth Games Ltd. 2024. - Розваги
Welcome to Lateral, the podcast that's surely more fun than terrorism because we don't talk about anthrax anymore.
Your slogan is pretty good, but we were thinking of pumping the smell of ricin in as part of the campaign.
As an American who loves UK panel shows despite not really knowing any of the UK celebs, I 1000% love that Lateral is basically a UK panel show but with UA-camrs I recognize
Which is funny because I have no idea who these people are!
@@SmashmanVideoslol, this is the only time I recognised all of the people
"I have altered the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further."
Adam Ragusea, 2024. (Paraphrased)
"You have broken the rules. Pray you'll ever be asked back."
- Tom Scott, 2024 (inferred)
I'm not a Trekkie, but I'm surprised I've never heard the (1:26) "changed the conditions of the test" rendition before. I've heard about and seen clips of that scene, but never seen it used as a reference!
I once saw a really drunk guy at the BART Station trying to buy a ticket with $100 bills. He had several in his hand, and I became really alarmed.
I told the guy to put his money away before he got robbed and I pulled out my own wallet to buy a ticket for the guy. When he saw I wasn't going to rob him he leaned over and said, "I'm not drunk, I'm a cop. I'm trying to get robbed."
As I walked away I looked back and there must have been 15 cops standing with the guy watching me.
A few months later I saw a news story about this sting operation. The "drunk guy" was the bait again but he was wearing different clothes, so this was not the same day.
The reported asked if any honest people try to help him and he says, "Yea, it actually happens more often than you think. Just last week a guy tried to help me."
Was he talking about me? Doesn't matter, I'm just glad it happens more often than people might think.
I'm always astounded by the breadth of different UA-camrs that Tom gets on Lateral
but when you see what kind of content they offer, it probably something that his audience will enjoy. he probably won't invite mr. beast on lateral
Everyone loves Tom
I read that as "breath" 🤣
I'm waiting for Big Clive, Fran Blanche and Glen from Glen and friends! And Just JP, Jamel aka Jamal and India would be great too!😂
David*
As a chemistry student, this always infuriates me: bitter almonds and the kind of almonds you want eat are completely different things and hydrogen cyanide doesn't smell like almonds at all. The aroma of almonds and also cherries mostly comes from benzaldehyde. Bitter almonds on the other hand smell like hydrogen cyanide because they release it when wet. It has been described as a sharp and pungent odor because what you're sensing there basically is the death screams of your olfactory cells.
wouldn't this imply whatever gas they were pumping into the tube literally contained cyanide? Surely not.
I think I remember NileRed doing a video about this, but I didn't remember the details, so thanks. Still, I imagine that with the common misconception being "cyanide smells like almonds", that the smell would still potentially cause panic (although some people are saying that Disaronno isn't actually made with almonds? I guess the thing it's actually made of must smell similar...? I'm confused all around lol)
"The death screams of your olfactory cells." YIKES! 😮
Bitter almonds can actually be used as a spice in almond paste, but that is of course in tiny concentrations due to the risk of cyanide poisoning and the bitterness.
I have read scientific articles that claim that only a proportion of the population can smell hydrogen cyanide - from 40 to 90%. Benzaldehyde is the smell of bitter almonds as that is the other part of amygdalin that is released when it is hydrolysed.
I know it doesn't affect the subject matter, but Disaronno is made using apricot kernel oil NOT almonds. (Oh, and cyanide can also be derived from apple pips, but you would need to eat a huge amount to be poisoned.)
Ah, yes, I'd forgotten about that.
What are almonds then?
@@the_multus Almonds are the drupe kernels of another plant in the genus Prunus, related to peaches and apricots, but with a hard 'middle' layer instead of the soft 'flesh' of the others.
Amaretto is one of those strange drinks that tastes of almonds but is more often made from other things like peach stones.
On that note: Sweet almonds you can buy as food in supermarkets etc everywhere is cyanide free. Only bitter almonds contain blue acid. And you can only get to buy the aromatic oil from those.
This reminds me of the infamous Thanksgiving episode of “WKRP in Cincinnati” in the 1970s, when the station manager decided to give out free dinners by dropping live turkeys from a helicopter over the city. As he explained to the crew upon returning to the station, “As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly!”
Failure to do basic research!
@@JustOneAsbestoDon't pick on Les. He was the only one with the presence of mind to make an emergency announcement that the radio station was off the air.
I love how Tom recovered so smoothly from one of his guests googling half the answer lol
Fun fact- Disaronno actually contains no almond. It's made from Apricot stones!
Which has the same problem as almonds - contains amygdalin, and is toxic...
Interesting way to use those leftover bits! I wonder, does amaretto or disarrono itself contain trace amounts of cyanide?
@@KernelLeak near my hometown, somebody dumped a mountain of cherry pits and I'm sure it's an environmental hazard for this reason.
@@fugithegreat Amygdalin only becomes toxic when it mixes with stomach enzymes. Also, hydrogen cyanide is very volatile and dissipates within a very short time.(about two hours)
I'd assumed there must be a rule against looking things up, since there have been questions in the past that got stuck on figuring out what something even is. I thought Adam would be helpful on this one since he might have cooked with Disarrono before, but instead he was helpful because he just looked it up.
I never thought I'd see a video with both Stuart Ashen and Adam Ragusea
I guess Barry Lewis was not available? :D
"Could you please not" is the most beautifully British thing I've heard today. 😂
Adam thinking outside the box immediately xD
Technically it's the smell of bitter almonds, which aren't really edible, that cyanide smells like. NileRed did some experiments with these.
That said, people just think (normal) almond smell = cyanide, when it's not quite.
I like them better than the sweet ones. A shame they are deadly.
but that misconception is enough to cause panic if the smell of almonds is pumped through the tube
Well, _technically_ "bitter almond smell" is generally benzaldehyde. The cyanide you get from them comes mostly from amygdalin, when they're digested. Cyanide itself doesn't have much smell. And I guess if there's enough of it to have a strong smell, you won't be smelling it for very long.
How many people would recognize the smell as "cyanide"? We've been told it smells like bitter almonds, but it seems like very few people would get a waft of amaretto scent and think "cyanide" rather than "almonds".
Nigel's sense of smell isn't a reliable indicator though, as his many experiments producing different terribly smelling gasses has shown (he didn't smell anything while everyone else in the room was trying to get out). A couple of people (biochemists) I know personally have told me it does indeed smell like almonds (as in, if you ask a random person to describe it, that is the first thing that comes to mind). Maybe it smells *more* like bitter almonds, but that doesn't mean it doesn't smell like almonds at all.
I was thinking about "come a little closer" ads that were hanged up on other side of the rails, but it would not be a matter for Home Office. I figured it out before guests though.
Were those not actually government adverts? I vaguely remember those
@@Ghiaman1334IIRC come a little closer was for a funeral service thing
@@komiteunofficialaccount9224 Oh yeah, I remember now, my bad
Adam Regusea: A man known for three things
1: researching a topic
2: practical solutions
3: using what you've got on hand (like for example, the internet)
You knew what he was all about when you invited him! I actually love that he was the first to just look something up, so fitting.
Adam googling immediately fits my para social model of him
He does it on reflex.
"ain't no rule" love him for that! ❤
It's so very on brand lmao
British government: "Could you please not"
There's your tagline: Lateral. Why we don' t talk about anthrax anymore.
Interesting implication that Lateral _is_ why we don't talk about Anthrax any more.
@@techno1561 That's one of the fun parts of the English language. :)
After hearing it's a brand of alcohol, I thought it was an ad in a style of "public transit is great, you can take it while hangover!" or "you can't drink and drive, but you can drink and tube!" or "you're not driving, so have a shot!"
I immediately confused Disaronno with DiGiorno and until Adam searched, I was thinking about frozen pizza ads. :D
So glad to see both Tom and Adam on the podcast together! Two different spheres of my UA-cam content that I wouldn't expect to overlap
I love that this podcast has brought Ashens together with Adam Ragusea
Seeing it for the second time and Tom's "are they ?" Reaction to the comment about almonds being poisonous is way funnier now
"Could you not pump the smell of cyanide into the tube, please?" ... wow, I wouldn't have thought that needed to be said, but here we are.
Shoutout to all my Disaronno enjoyers, company was founded like 5 minutes away from where I live
I love the dynamic between these guests! You need them back on again in the future!!
It is sometimes interesting how movie makers can give a scene where the sense of smell would be an important.
In the book for the Deathly Hallows Harry and Hermione travel to Godrick's Hallow to look for clues to help them, hoping to meet up with the Historian who lived in the same town where Harry's parents had died.
They find the historian but something is off about her, she is surrounded by the stench of death.
To communicate this in the movie they add the buzzing of flies. But flies are not active when it is that cold outside.
But is is effective in letting you know, the historian smells of death.
Tom Scott and Adam Ragusea in one video?!
Amazing that a guest decided it might be ok to use Google. Nice!
You always wonder why they are these disclaimers everywhere, you say to yourself "surely nobody did that, right?", well there ya go, now Lateral has to add the note that Google is not allowed.
Adam going all Kobayashi Maru had me cackling.
Only bitter almonds, Prunus dulcis var. amara, contain cyanide. The sweet ones mostly don’t.
In Adam's defense: he seemed to already know they made alcoholic drinks before he looked it up
Why don't we talk about Anthrax anymore? They were a great 80s thrash metal band.
I thought was an ad across the track that people were moving closer towards the edge with small print or something. Moving towards a rail track while distracted reading is not the sort of thing that ends well.
I'm sorry but Adam absentmindedly googling Disaronno is insanely relatable, i also can't handle not getting confirmation on facts I'm only 90% sure of
Pumping Ammaretto scent in the air in the hopes people will buy it sounds like a harebrained Grace Brothers tactic
This sounds very British. "Regarding spreading the lethal smell of death, could you please not?"
Bro just starts googling and asks for forgiveness instead of permission lol.
Di Saronno is not a company it just means "of Saronno". Apparently the liquor brand changed its name to "Disaronno" in 2001 to avoid confusion with Amaretti di Saronno, which are little almond biscuits from Saronno (although actually I think they're made with apricot kernels, not almond).
Never expected to see Adam Ragusea here.
“Wait can I not look stuff up?”
Loved this episode of Lateral. And Adam Ragusea bending the rules… 🤣
this happened around the same time in Melbourne with bus stops with vodka advertising
So... I've noticed an error: at the end of the video, the bottom right link leading to the 66th episode, in the link target it spells epiosdes , changing this to episodes make the link work.
When they got on to the subject of almonds, I was wondering if someone was going to ask if it was in fact terrorism related. Having heard a story from Bruce Dickinson's time as a pilot around that time and how one of his co-pilots was questioned severely for trying to bring a marzipan cake with him on the plane. Apparently the almond extract set off the airport bomb sensors.
Interesting. My first guess when Adam came up with the amaretto-connection would have been that the adverts targeted at commuters might encourage daytime drinking. I even did pretty quickly start thinking about smell. imagining the tube in the morning smelling like booze while staring at liquor posters my first guess would have been that this might make people think about their workday and get tempted to have a shot during stressed work hours.
But the cyanide smell makes even more sense to be opposed by the government.
Before even watching, from the title alone I'm guessing it's the funeral home putting posters over the tracks at a train station
Vanessa - as an Australian - should have an understanding of the Home Office, because Australia has one too: the Department of Home Affairs.
I clicked on quite quickly when I saw Adam was on this because I wanted to see how his vast general knowledge would get on with the show. And first he goes and does is google it XD
Honestly, I would've gone for a campaign that inhibits (visually or via smell) the people around it and make it prone to provoking accidents - of the lethal type. Not that it could kill people by itself...
As someone with sensory issues the idea of advertisements spritzing smells everwhere when out and about terrifies me.
And here I was sure it was going to be an ad that said "Long day at work? Pour yourself a Disarronno," only no one thought about the fact that it would be on a billboard or something.
The home office doesn't look after everything internal. They are responsible for security / law enforcement and similar. They don't collect taxes, or build roads, or provide hospitals. They also don't run the courts, which is a different department. Wikipedia lists similar organisations around the world under the generic name "Ministry of home affairs".
In the US it’s the Department of Homeland Security.
It's not a clean fit. The FBI is under the Department of Justice, but in the UK it would be Home Office.
Well, I wasn't expecting that..
and adam ragusea pulls a _Kobayashi Maru_
I feel like aerosolising alcohol into a public transport system is problematic enough; Plus there's the fact that it's kind of disruptive to anyone who dislikes the scent.
I believe 'the smell of almonds' covers a multitude of sins, including nerve gas and explosives, which would presumably have quite an effect of any bomb dogs in the vicinity.
When it got into almonds and security concerns rather than cyanide I was thinking maybe the smell was generated using para-nitrotoluene which might confuse explosive detectors or maybe bomb sniffing dogs?
Ngl, I'm struggling to understand just how that would even be an effective 'ad' if that was the method used for it.
Because it smells amazing, like alcoholic marzipan, and theoretically enough people would unconsciously go to buy some afterwards or whatever to justify the cost? My guess, anyway.
sometimes an innovative ad or stunt is enough to get some column inches in a news article which helps to spread brand awareness even if the ad isn't inherently compelling.
I would imagine there was be posters, or something similar also adveristing the product and linking it to the smell.
@@theyorkrose5274 Not even subconsciously... if I smelled Disaronno on the tube, I'd go looking for some Disaronno.
I really wish the full episode was available on UA-cam, they clearly video it, so why do we only get highlights?
UA-cam's implementation of full-length podcasts is pretty poor - the retention is horrible, and you can't migrate subscribers to other platforms. Our current podcast provider is looking to support video in the early part of this year, so it is something we hope to do soon.
@@lateralcast Best news of the week. Please follow through on this - and I don't mean in the british vernacular toilet sense.
amazing
Haha if you want to add those funny taglines to the slow, maybe you could add it as a subline of the intro clip. A different wacky one every video! Kinda like the Minecraft spash screen or something
Ahhh ashen is here yes!!
Where is the full episode ?
0:19 seconds in and I think I have this one despite not knowing abour the advert. I want to say it's because I know about London, but at least partly it's because I drink Disaronno lmao
I did have it but I went too far - I was going to suggest it linked to a terrorist attack that happened on the Underground, but that happened in 2005, so 3 years after this advertising campaign. I did know what the question was about, though, so I'll claim that as a point
Holy Cow, without Adam's Google hint no-one would have had a chance in Hell of getting the answer to this question. It's literally the first time I've ever heard of a company piping a scent into a public space, with the one obvious exception of exhaust fans from stores selling fast food.
Some bakeries also use artificial fresh bread smell.
Even more lateral... anyone else coveting the Foredom Rotary tool and jewelers bench in the back ground?
not sure about this but i did arsenic and old lace a while back and it seems to me that it was arsenic that tasted like almonds.
It's bad enough that we are bombarded with visual and auditory ads, but olfactory ads are just too much for me. I can barely stand to walk past a Bath & Body Works shop in the mall or be in the vicinity of someone wearing cologne. 😂
Can't believe no one got it at 5:00, it was all right there.
these three guests are very funny
0:41 Adam was spitting facts here and I wish I was there to side-eye the camera over Tom's response!
Edit: plus Adam being American adds so much layer to the irony here
Adam Ragusea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!¡!!
Initial thoughts: Disaronno makes alcohol. So, I guess it's something along the lines of encouraging the consumption/purchase of their products. Thus, it would be an irresponsible suggestion to mix drinking and going out in public, to work, to school, back to the family, etc. It's pretty vague as a LOT of situations broadly promoting the use of alcohol can lead to undesirable outcomes, and just one is needed to stop the campaign. It could be as simple as being on a line serving a primary/secondary school, making it advertising alcohol to minors.
i have no idea how they were supposed to solve this if adam hadnt googled disarrono
haha i honestly can't believe adam thought he would be allowed to use google at all
Nice to see Vanessa on here she is a great science communicator in addition to all the other great things she does.
Is the Home Office like the US Department of the Interior?
No. It's like the Interior Ministries of many countries, but the US DoI does land management rather than policing, border security and counterterrorism. It's like the Department of Homeland Security plus half of the Department of Justice.
ADAM RAGUSEA!!!!
I, too, would not like to smell SovietWomble's best friend
Yay, Ashens!
It also smells like a certain popular explosive
I still talk about anthrax occasionally, but I am a microbiologist.
Yeah, 2002 was really the wrong year to try that ad.
Adding a smell to a public transport system is just ridiculous. Its practically and accessibility concern because of how intolerable some smells are to some people, and it can be inescapable in a way audiovisual adds are not (with headphones and looking elsewhere). Appaling that this was even deployed imo.
Why aren't anyone mentioning how THE PASSENGERS KNEW WHAT CYANIDE SMELLED LIKE!?
Agatha Christie novels and movies based on them would be my first guess.
Several of Agatha Christie's stories include a detective determining that someone died of cyanide poisoning because of the lingering smell of bitter almonds, and it's been popular knowledge that cyanide smells like almonds since then. (Not entirely accurate, though, since most people are more familiar with sweet almonds, and cyanide smells like bitter almonds. And that's because cyanide is a major contributor to the smell of bitter almonds, so cyanide smells like cyanide.)
As (bad) luck would have it, the Home Office had run an awareness campaign about this very thing the previous month. So it was actually pretty likely! See: www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/Article/2002/12/06/Disaronno-s-aroma-campaign-goes-down-the-Tubes
While it's true that regular almonds contain very small amounts of cyanide, it is not true that cyanide smell like almonds. They smell like raw BITTER almonds, which are not almonds that have gone bitter, but rather a whole different kind of almond, with far much more cyanide in them, that, when raw, smell very vaguely like chlorine, specially if crushed, but don't really have that much of a smell at all.
Enough time has passed that I can confess that Vanessa Hill was my Pokimane I was a total simp 😢
Adam not mentioning white wine??
😎
Adam saying Brits are thinking about ruling the rest of the world when the CIA exists is too funny.
amaretto does _not_ smell of cyanide. people _think_ it does and that's why the ban of the ads still makes sense, but the idea that the smells are the same is a myth purported by old crime stories.
I believe Amaretto doesn't contain almonds (only fruit kernels) but both have a similar smell. -- David
@@lateralcast it was addressed in a different comment. *both* almonds and apricot kernels contain the same substance: amygdalin; this will in the presence of water split into hydrogen cyanide and benzaldehyde (and two glucose molecules but that's not important) - it is benzaldehyde that has the main marzipan/almond/amaretto smell; the structurally very different hydrogen cyanide allegedly smells similar to bleach to those who can even smell it (which is apparently a genetically determined trait).
it is possible that people who have eaten raw bitter almonds or other _Prunus_ kernels and can perceive cyanide mix up both smells but since only a minority of people can actually perceive it it's most likely the association is for all intents and purposes culturally learned (as i said: old-fashioned crime stories)
Surely it's because Semtex smells like Almonds!
Ahh it’s dadam ragusea !
Call of Duty Modern Warfar 3 ces knocking
I liked seeing Adam on here even though he cheated😂
He didn't cheat, though. There wasn't actually a rule against using google.
@@teh-maxh I think it's pretty obviously inferred that you don't google on a quiz-style podcast. It also probably doesn't say in the rules to not rob old ladies during the podcast, or punch children in the face. Sensible people would just assume that this was the case, and refrain from doing so at least until after the podcast had finished.
Episode with a hostile vibe. The guests make the tone of the show it seems :-)
How much amaretto do you need to drink to get an idea that stupid? XD