Copycat Brands

Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly

Apostrophe Podcast Network

Advertising, Marketing, Pop Culture, Business, Terry O'reilly, Cbc, Society & Culture, Under The Influence

4.8 • 627 Ratings

🗓️ 6 December 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week, we look at copycat brands.

Even though they walk a razor’s edge legally, copycat brands seem to pop up all over the world.

You may like Walmart here, but there’s a Wumart in China.

You may like North Face apparel, but did you know there was a South Butt brand?

And, we’ll tell the story of a copycat cookie that overtook the original to become the best-selling cookie in the world.

We know you want to listen to all the ads in this show. On the off-chance you don’t, subscribe ad-free here.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is an apostrophe podcast production.
0:07.7	You're so king in it.
0:12.8	Your feet look lighter than no no No No
0:21.6	You're under the influence
0:23.6	You're under the influence You're under the influence with Terry O'Reilly.
1:03.4	Back in 1978, an Australian rock band was formed in Melbourne called Men at Work.
1:09.9	The band released its debut album in 1982 titled Business As Usual.
1:17.2	The first single from that LP was Who Can It Be Now, which reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100.
1:24.9	Ten weeks later, the second single, Down Under, was released and soared to number one as well.
1:29.6	It was one of the few major rock songs to feature a flute solo.
1:37.1	The following month, business as usual began a remarkable 15-week run as the number one album on the Billboard 100. Men at Work became the first Australian group to have a number one album
1:43.5	and number one single on the Billboard charts simultaneously.
1:48.0	The band would win a Grammy as Best New Artist of the Year in 1983.
1:57.3	25 years later, an Australian music-themed TV game show called Spicks and Specks
2:04.3	asked the following question.
2:07.6	What children's song is contained in the song, Down Under, by men at work?
2:13.5	One of the competitors on the game show answered, the Cucobura song, which was correct.
2:20.8	Somewhere, an executive at publishing company Lerican Music sat upright and said, wait, what?
2:29.7	Lerican music owned the publishing rights to the Cucobura song.
2:34.0	It had been written back in 1932 by music teacher Marion Sinclair.
2:39.4	She had entered the song in a competition run by the Girl Guides.
2:43.6	The rights of the winning song were to be sold to raise money to purchase a camping ground.
	...

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