WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.140 So when you fire up your phone today, or when 00:00:03.140 --> 00:00:05.299 you're just browsing the internet, you totally 00:00:05.299 --> 00:00:08.640 know the drill. Oh, yeah. The targeted ads. Exactly. 00:00:08.740 --> 00:00:12.400 You are just constantly bombarded by these highly 00:00:12.400 --> 00:00:15.000 targeted algorithmic ads. They know what you 00:00:15.000 --> 00:00:16.739 looked at yesterday. They predict what you might 00:00:16.739 --> 00:00:18.780 want to buy tomorrow. Right. And they adapt to 00:00:18.780 --> 00:00:22.140 your behavior in milliseconds. Yeah. And it feels 00:00:22.140 --> 00:00:24.960 incredibly modern, right? Almost inescapable. 00:00:25.239 --> 00:00:28.399 We definitely tend to credit that kind of viral 00:00:28.570 --> 00:00:31.870 personalized marketing entirely to the digital 00:00:31.870 --> 00:00:34.350 age. I mean, we just assume it requires super 00:00:34.350 --> 00:00:37.289 computers and endless lines of code to make millions 00:00:37.289 --> 00:00:39.850 of people instantly recognize a brand and rush 00:00:39.850 --> 00:00:42.649 out to buy it. But if you rewind the clock to 00:00:42.649 --> 00:00:45.549 the 1940s and 50s, the ultimate viral marketing 00:00:45.549 --> 00:00:48.649 campaign wasn't a machine at all. No, it wasn't. 00:00:48.670 --> 00:00:51.509 The algorithm was actually a single fast -talking 00:00:51.509 --> 00:00:54.229 man from rural North Carolina. Yeah, so I was 00:00:54.229 --> 00:00:56.350 digging through our sources this week, specifically 00:00:56.350 --> 00:00:59.210 going down a rabbit hole into this really fascinating 00:00:59.210 --> 00:01:02.329 Wikipedia biography of a man named Lee Aubrey 00:01:02.329 --> 00:01:04.670 Riggs. Better known to the world as Speed Riggs, 00:01:04.790 --> 00:01:09.170 right? Yes, Speed Riggs. And his story completely 00:01:09.170 --> 00:01:11.950 refrains how we think about modern media. Just 00:01:11.950 --> 00:01:14.629 the nickname Speed tells you you're in for a 00:01:14.629 --> 00:01:17.549 wild ride. So our mission today on this deep 00:01:17.549 --> 00:01:20.049 dive is to take you through his unbelievable 00:01:20.049 --> 00:01:22.349 journey. It really is unbelievable. We're going 00:01:22.349 --> 00:01:24.750 straight into the life of a sixth grade dropout 00:01:24.750 --> 00:01:27.049 who went from working the dirt in North Carolina 00:01:27.049 --> 00:01:30.670 to becoming a national broadcast icon. I mean, 00:01:31.090 --> 00:01:33.650 casually rubbing elbows with Frank Sinatra. And 00:01:33.650 --> 00:01:35.469 of course, we're going to examine the deeply 00:01:35.469 --> 00:01:38.549 complex legacy of the tobacco advertising boom 00:01:38.549 --> 00:01:40.739 that he helped pioneer. Because to understand 00:01:40.739 --> 00:01:43.799 how one unique voice completely revolutionized 00:01:43.799 --> 00:01:46.239 20th century marketing, we really have to look 00:01:46.239 --> 00:01:48.579 at the mechanics of obsession. Right. For Speed 00:01:48.579 --> 00:01:51.519 Riggs, his media empire did not start in a corporate 00:01:51.519 --> 00:01:55.099 boardroom. It started with this relentless, almost 00:01:55.099 --> 00:01:57.280 irrational compulsion. Okay, let's unpack this 00:01:57.280 --> 00:01:59.859 origin. Riggs was born in 1907 in Silverdale, 00:02:00.060 --> 00:02:02.760 North Carolina. Tiny community. Very tiny. Rural 00:02:02.760 --> 00:02:05.900 on Slow County. His father, Mark, was a tobacco 00:02:05.900 --> 00:02:08.360 and truck farmer, and young Lee Aubrey Riggs 00:02:08.360 --> 00:02:11.000 was fully expected to just work those fields. 00:02:11.180 --> 00:02:13.280 Which was the norm back then. Yeah, in fact, 00:02:13.379 --> 00:02:15.879 he dropped out of school in the sixth grade just 00:02:15.879 --> 00:02:18.680 to assist his dad with the crops. But the thing 00:02:18.680 --> 00:02:22.780 is, he absolutely hated. the work. He really 00:02:22.780 --> 00:02:25.680 did. He felt zero satisfaction pulling things 00:02:25.680 --> 00:02:28.699 out of the dirt. He desperately wanted out. What's 00:02:28.699 --> 00:02:30.719 fascinating here is that the catalyst for his 00:02:30.719 --> 00:02:33.120 escape happened when he was just 14 years old. 00:02:33.520 --> 00:02:35.900 He visited the Faison Produce Auction in Sampson 00:02:35.900 --> 00:02:39.080 County. Oh, wow. And if you, the listener, have 00:02:39.080 --> 00:02:41.680 never been to a live old school agricultural 00:02:41.680 --> 00:02:45.780 auction, you have to picture this intense, overwhelming 00:02:45.780 --> 00:02:48.500 sensory overload. I'm just picturing chaos, like 00:02:48.500 --> 00:02:50.599 people shouting over each other, aggressive hand 00:02:50.599 --> 00:02:53.460 signals, buyers cutting each other off. Exactly. 00:02:53.639 --> 00:02:55.979 It's a highly chaotic environment, and it's designed 00:02:55.979 --> 00:02:58.560 to move perishable goods as fast as humanly possible. 00:02:58.699 --> 00:03:00.539 But for this 14 -year -old kid, it wasn't noise 00:03:00.539 --> 00:03:02.759 at all. It was music. Yeah, the sources note 00:03:02.759 --> 00:03:05.400 he was completely mesmerized by the auctioneers. 00:03:05.860 --> 00:03:09.180 He actually described their cadence as this staccatoed 00:03:09.180 --> 00:03:11.629 style. noting how they almost seemed to be humming 00:03:11.629 --> 00:03:14.449 Yankee Doodle as they spoke. Yankee Doodle. I 00:03:14.449 --> 00:03:16.810 love that. And he internalized that rhythm immediately. 00:03:17.229 --> 00:03:19.210 Yeah. Oh, absolutely. It wasn't just a casual 00:03:19.210 --> 00:03:21.830 interest. It fundamentally rewired his brain. 00:03:21.949 --> 00:03:25.229 I mean, he bypassed formal education entirely 00:03:25.229 --> 00:03:28.349 and threw himself into this intense self -directed 00:03:28.349 --> 00:03:30.569 mimicry. Right, because he was a sixth grade 00:03:30.569 --> 00:03:33.909 dropout. Exactly. The texts detail how he would 00:03:33.909 --> 00:03:36.590 walk up and down the rural road practicing his 00:03:36.590 --> 00:03:39.289 auctioneer chant by literally selling whatever 00:03:39.289 --> 00:03:41.729 he saw. Wait, like what would he sell? He would 00:03:41.729 --> 00:03:44.550 sell the fence posts. He'd sell mailboxes. He 00:03:44.550 --> 00:03:46.750 would just rapid fire, sell the pine trees as 00:03:46.750 --> 00:03:49.409 he rode by them. That is such a hilarious visual. 00:03:49.530 --> 00:03:52.490 Just a teenager speed talking to a pine tree, 00:03:52.550 --> 00:03:54.849 you know, trying to get top dollar from a squirrel. 00:03:55.030 --> 00:03:57.310 Yeah, but his dad did not find it funny at all. 00:03:57.349 --> 00:04:00.229 Oh, I bet. The constant rapid fire babbling was 00:04:00.229 --> 00:04:03.250 just driving his father crazy. His dad actually 00:04:03.250 --> 00:04:05.530 threatened to beat him if he didn't stop making, 00:04:05.629 --> 00:04:08.870 quote, that bunch of noise. No, it's like a modern 00:04:08.870 --> 00:04:11.569 teenager obsessively practicing electric guitar 00:04:11.569 --> 00:04:13.590 in the garage until their fingers bleed. That 00:04:13.590 --> 00:04:16.970 is a perfect comparison. It's just a pure unadulterated 00:04:16.910 --> 00:04:20.290 drive for mastery. The parents hate the noise 00:04:20.290 --> 00:04:22.990 but the kid can't stop. And when you look at 00:04:22.990 --> 00:04:26.509 the psychology of expertise you often find this 00:04:26.509 --> 00:04:29.269 exact kind of friction. Riggs couldn't stop. 00:04:29.709 --> 00:04:32.370 He stated that nothing in his life before or 00:04:32.370 --> 00:04:35.230 since captivated him more than that chant. So 00:04:35.230 --> 00:04:37.129 what did he do when his dad yelled at him? He 00:04:37.129 --> 00:04:39.069 would just move out of here shot. At night when 00:04:39.069 --> 00:04:41.350 the house was completely quiet he would literally 00:04:41.350 --> 00:04:44.569 hide under his bed covers and quietly hum his 00:04:44.569 --> 00:04:47.240 auction chants into the dark. Think about the 00:04:47.240 --> 00:04:50.000 dedication that takes. Just imagine being 14, 00:04:50.480 --> 00:04:52.439 completely obsessed with a skill that has no 00:04:52.439 --> 00:04:55.279 guarantee of paying off, just grinding away under 00:04:55.279 --> 00:04:58.040 a blanket. But that, under the covers practice, 00:04:58.279 --> 00:05:00.939 paid off in a terrifyingly massive way. It really 00:05:00.939 --> 00:05:03.360 did. He trained his vocal cords to speak at a 00:05:03.360 --> 00:05:06.860 staggering pace of 469 words per minute. Which 00:05:06.860 --> 00:05:09.019 is insane. Just for context, you and I are probably 00:05:09.019 --> 00:05:11.339 speaking at about like 150 words per minute right 00:05:11.339 --> 00:05:13.959 now. He was tripling that. And at the time, that 00:05:13.959 --> 00:05:16.720 469 words per minute was actually believed to 00:05:16.720 --> 00:05:19.079 be a world record. And that unprecedented speed 00:05:19.079 --> 00:05:21.720 landed him his first real job, right? Yeah. At 00:05:21.720 --> 00:05:24.300 age 18, he was hired as a produce auctioneer 00:05:24.300 --> 00:05:27.759 at that very same face on market. He figured 00:05:27.759 --> 00:05:30.060 out early on that if he perfected the skill, 00:05:30.560 --> 00:05:32.420 someone would eventually pay him to sell for 00:05:32.420 --> 00:05:35.300 them. But the produce market was basically just 00:05:35.300 --> 00:05:38.199 the minor leagues for him. He mastered selling 00:05:38.199 --> 00:05:41.920 vegetables, sure, but he craved the sheer scale 00:05:41.920 --> 00:05:44.120 and the high stakes that he saw in the eyes of 00:05:44.120 --> 00:05:46.420 the tobacco auctioneers. He wanted the big leagues. 00:05:46.720 --> 00:05:50.199 Exactly. To get there, he had to jump to a much 00:05:50.199 --> 00:05:53.459 larger, much more ruthless stage, the tobacco 00:05:53.459 --> 00:05:56.399 warehouse. And to really grasp the environment 00:05:56.399 --> 00:05:59.420 Riggs was stepping into. We need to look at why 00:05:59.420 --> 00:06:02.100 these massive tobacco warehouses even existed 00:06:02.100 --> 00:06:04.980 in the first place. Right. Back in the late 1800s, 00:06:05.040 --> 00:06:07.160 the agricultural industry in Virginia and the 00:06:07.160 --> 00:06:09.779 Carolinas shifted to what was called the loose 00:06:09.779 --> 00:06:12.120 leaf auction system. OK, wait, if I'm a farmer 00:06:12.120 --> 00:06:14.920 back then, isn't it significantly easier to just 00:06:14.920 --> 00:06:17.180 pack all my crops into a giant barrel and sell 00:06:17.180 --> 00:06:19.579 the barrel? Like, loose leaves sound like a logistical 00:06:19.579 --> 00:06:21.720 nightmare to transport. It was definitely harder 00:06:21.720 --> 00:06:24.100 to transport, but the barrel system was fundamentally 00:06:24.100 --> 00:06:27.160 broken by fraud. Really? How so? Well, previously, 00:06:27.399 --> 00:06:29.779 Tobacco was packed and sold in these massive 00:06:29.779 --> 00:06:33.000 barrels called hogsheads. But swindlers realized 00:06:33.000 --> 00:06:34.720 the corporate buyers couldn't see the bottom 00:06:34.720 --> 00:06:38.000 of the barrel. Oh no, I see where this is going. 00:06:38.199 --> 00:06:41.199 Yeah, so they would put a layer of premium, high 00:06:41.199 --> 00:06:43.959 quality tobacco on top and then fill the bottom 00:06:43.959 --> 00:06:46.899 with garbage. Like actual garbage. Rotten leaves, 00:06:47.139 --> 00:06:50.360 dirt. sometimes literal rocks, and they'd sell 00:06:50.360 --> 00:06:52.980 the whole hogshead at a premium. Wow, so the 00:06:52.980 --> 00:06:55.740 giant corporations were basically getting scammed 00:06:55.740 --> 00:06:59.100 by local farmers. Continually. So the loose -leaf 00:06:59.100 --> 00:07:01.800 system was instituted to stop that exact fraud. 00:07:02.399 --> 00:07:04.759 Farmers were forced to bring their crops to warehouses 00:07:04.759 --> 00:07:07.720 and arrange them into these visible waist -high 00:07:07.720 --> 00:07:10.000 piles on the floor. Okay, so you can see everything. 00:07:10.329 --> 00:07:13.370 Exactly. This way, the buyers who were representing 00:07:13.370 --> 00:07:15.990 those giant tobacco corporations could visually 00:07:15.990 --> 00:07:19.189 inspect the entire product before bidding. But 00:07:19.189 --> 00:07:22.029 solving the fraud problem created a massive speed 00:07:22.029 --> 00:07:24.389 problem. Because now you aren't selling one giant 00:07:24.389 --> 00:07:27.149 barrel. You are selling thousands of individual 00:07:27.149 --> 00:07:29.610 little piles. Thousands of them. Here's where 00:07:29.610 --> 00:07:32.149 it gets really interesting. The scale of these 00:07:32.149 --> 00:07:35.500 warehouses is just mind blowing. Riggs got hired 00:07:35.500 --> 00:07:37.920 at the Liberty warehouse in Durham, North Carolina, 00:07:38.579 --> 00:07:41.879 and this specific warehouse covered a 2 .5 acre 00:07:41.879 --> 00:07:44.480 lot. It was massive. And the speed of commerce 00:07:44.480 --> 00:07:46.540 had to explode to keep up with the loose leaf 00:07:46.540 --> 00:07:50.699 system. Between 1870 and 1929, the sales per 00:07:50.699 --> 00:07:54.220 auction skyrocketed from 75 piles of tobacco 00:07:54.220 --> 00:07:58.199 an hour to 400 piles an hour. 400 piles an hour 00:07:58.199 --> 00:08:00.620 means the auctioneer is finalizing a sale every 00:08:00.620 --> 00:08:03.319 nine seconds. Every nine seconds. That is exhausting 00:08:03.319 --> 00:08:05.519 to even think about. It was an absolute spectacle. 00:08:05.819 --> 00:08:08.339 These auctions grew into massive circus like 00:08:08.339 --> 00:08:10.800 events. They were basically the grand social 00:08:10.800 --> 00:08:12.920 gatherings of the South. I read they even held 00:08:12.920 --> 00:08:15.319 beauty pageants after the sales, crowning a local 00:08:15.319 --> 00:08:18.329 woman as the tobacco. They did, and the high 00:08:18.329 --> 00:08:20.529 demand of this environment meant the warehouses 00:08:20.529 --> 00:08:23.529 desperately needed highly skilled rapid -fire 00:08:23.529 --> 00:08:26.189 auctioneers just to keep the sheer volume of 00:08:26.189 --> 00:08:28.790 product moving before it degraded. enter speed 00:08:28.790 --> 00:08:32.450 rigs in his early 20s, stepping onto this 2 .5 00:08:32.450 --> 00:08:34.909 -acre stage. Yep, here he comes. He was described 00:08:34.909 --> 00:08:39.370 as this tall, lanky guy with big ears and a protruding 00:08:39.370 --> 00:08:42.549 Adam's apple, and he unleashed that under -the 00:08:42.549 --> 00:08:45.090 -covers chant on the corporate buyers. The text 00:08:45.090 --> 00:08:47.330 actually spills out his cadence, which is fascinating. 00:08:47.590 --> 00:08:50.649 Yeah. He would rhythmically chant, uh, 31 Mueller, 00:08:50.809 --> 00:08:53.690 31, one, ah, ha, three, two, two, two, toodle, 00:08:53.750 --> 00:08:56.169 toodle, toodle, two. and he handled the warehouse 00:08:56.169 --> 00:08:59.169 floor with incredible physical grace, you know, 00:08:59.269 --> 00:09:02.070 almost dancing between the piles. But more importantly, 00:09:02.730 --> 00:09:05.769 he understood the psychology of the buyers. Right. 00:09:05.929 --> 00:09:08.649 He wasn't just doing math out loud. He was orchestrating 00:09:08.649 --> 00:09:11.759 high stakes performance art. So wait. Riggs was 00:09:11.759 --> 00:09:15.360 officially clocked at 469 words per minute. But 00:09:15.360 --> 00:09:17.860 was he actually successful because of that blistering 00:09:17.860 --> 00:09:20.340 speed, or was the speed just a distraction? What 00:09:20.340 --> 00:09:22.200 do you mean? Like a magician's sleight of hand, 00:09:22.220 --> 00:09:24.639 masking his ability to psychologically manipulate 00:09:24.639 --> 00:09:26.519 the buyers, because the sources mention a very 00:09:26.519 --> 00:09:28.899 specific trick he used. But the ignoring tactic. 00:09:29.059 --> 00:09:31.580 Yes. He would deliberately ignore a bidder. He'd 00:09:31.580 --> 00:09:33.440 look a corporate buyer dead in the eye, fully 00:09:33.440 --> 00:09:35.340 aware the guy wanted to buy the pile, and he 00:09:35.340 --> 00:09:37.120 would let the sale go to a rival bidder anyway, 00:09:37.200 --> 00:09:39.259 just to make the first guy mad. Yeah, the speed 00:09:39.259 --> 00:09:42.159 was the hook. But the psychology was absolutely 00:09:42.159 --> 00:09:45.399 the mechanism of his success. That trick you 00:09:45.399 --> 00:09:48.019 mentioned is pure behavioral economics. It's 00:09:48.019 --> 00:09:51.179 so manipulative. It is. By looking a buyer in 00:09:51.179 --> 00:09:54.179 the eye and letting a sale go to a rival, Riggs 00:09:54.179 --> 00:09:56.779 manufactured artificial scarcity and bruised 00:09:56.779 --> 00:09:58.659 the buyer's ego. Right, because these guys are 00:09:58.659 --> 00:10:01.240 super competitive. Exactly. In the next round, 00:10:01.500 --> 00:10:03.940 that ignored buyer would bid significantly higher, 00:10:04.279 --> 00:10:07.059 often overpaying, just to assert dominance on 00:10:07.059 --> 00:10:09.779 the floor. Riggs understood these men weren't 00:10:09.779 --> 00:10:12.259 just buying leaves, they were competing for status. 00:10:12.740 --> 00:10:16.679 Wow. So pacing, eye contact, and emotional manipulation 00:10:16.679 --> 00:10:19.279 dictated the price? Completely. He was basically 00:10:19.279 --> 00:10:21.340 conducting an orchestra of corporate wallets 00:10:21.340 --> 00:10:24.120 and the rumors of this lanky, lightning -fast 00:10:24.120 --> 00:10:26.740 auctioneer started spreading all throughout the 00:10:26.740 --> 00:10:28.919 South. Which brings us to the next big leap. 00:10:29.220 --> 00:10:31.879 Yeah, how does a local warehouse star translate 00:10:31.879 --> 00:10:34.659 into a national broadcast phenomenon? That gap 00:10:34.659 --> 00:10:37.539 feels huge. It does. But it happens because he 00:10:37.539 --> 00:10:39.679 catches the ear of a corporate titan desperate 00:10:39.679 --> 00:10:42.899 to win a brand war. Right. So the American Tobacco 00:10:42.899 --> 00:10:44.940 Company had purchased Lucky Strike cigarettes 00:10:44.940 --> 00:10:48.960 back in 1905, and they were ruthless, innovative 00:10:48.960 --> 00:10:52.259 marketers. By 1917, they launched the famous 00:10:52.259 --> 00:10:55.500 It's Toasted slogan. OK, I have to ask, why does 00:10:55.500 --> 00:10:57.840 that even matter? Aren't all cigarettes just 00:10:57.840 --> 00:11:00.340 dried leaves wrapped in paper? They are, yeah. 00:11:00.720 --> 00:11:03.899 But the genius of It's Toasted was differentiation. 00:11:04.159 --> 00:11:06.940 in a completely saturated market. Oh, I see. 00:11:07.460 --> 00:11:09.679 They claimed their tobacco was toasted during 00:11:09.679 --> 00:11:12.720 manufacturing instead of sun dried. Now, it didn't 00:11:12.720 --> 00:11:15.080 actually make the product safer or remarkably 00:11:15.080 --> 00:11:17.779 different, but it gave the consumer a tangible 00:11:17.779 --> 00:11:20.659 reason why their brand was superior. It's all 00:11:20.659 --> 00:11:23.299 about the story you tell. Exactly. Then in the 00:11:23.299 --> 00:11:25.500 1920s, they pivoted to aggressively targeting 00:11:25.500 --> 00:11:27.879 women. They ran widespread campaigns telling 00:11:27.879 --> 00:11:30.750 women to quote. reach for a lucky instead of 00:11:30.750 --> 00:11:32.769 a sweet, basically pitching the cigarette as 00:11:32.769 --> 00:11:34.629 a weight loss aid. And not only was it effective, 00:11:34.769 --> 00:11:37.370 it was so effective that the actual candy and 00:11:37.370 --> 00:11:39.090 confectioner companies panicked. Oh, they were 00:11:39.090 --> 00:11:41.210 terrified. They had to run counter campaigns 00:11:41.210 --> 00:11:42.909 claiming you could still eat sweets and stay 00:11:42.909 --> 00:11:45.110 thin just to fight off the tobacco marketing. 00:11:45.440 --> 00:11:48.639 The power of this advertising was immense. It 00:11:48.639 --> 00:11:51.799 really was. By the late 1920s, the president 00:11:51.799 --> 00:11:54.340 of the American Tobacco Company, a man named 00:11:54.340 --> 00:11:57.960 George Washington Hill, was spending a staggering 00:11:57.960 --> 00:12:02.360 $7 million a year on advertisements. And $7 million 00:12:02.360 --> 00:12:06.460 in the 1920s is an unfathomable marketing budget. 00:12:06.720 --> 00:12:09.080 It's insane. The sources note that the only company 00:12:09.080 --> 00:12:11.519 in the entire country spending more on advertising 00:12:11.519 --> 00:12:14.639 than American tobacco was General Motors. Wow. 00:12:14.779 --> 00:12:17.559 Just cars and cigarettes. Pretty much. But by 00:12:17.559 --> 00:12:20.080 the late 1930s, George Washington Hill hit a 00:12:20.080 --> 00:12:22.539 wall. The old marketing gimmicks were losing 00:12:22.539 --> 00:12:25.179 their appeal. Print coupons and collectible cards 00:12:25.179 --> 00:12:27.259 inside the packs just weren't driving the kind 00:12:27.259 --> 00:12:29.039 of explosive growth you wanted anymore. They 00:12:29.039 --> 00:12:31.899 needed a new gimmick. Right. Lucky strikes were 00:12:31.899 --> 00:12:34.320 regaining popularity and were close to outselling 00:12:34.320 --> 00:12:37.269 their main rival. Camel. But Hill needed something 00:12:37.269 --> 00:12:39.909 entirely new to push them over the edge. He was 00:12:39.909 --> 00:12:41.809 sponsoring a national radio show called Your 00:12:41.809 --> 00:12:44.149 Hit Parade, but the commercials lacked a certain 00:12:44.149 --> 00:12:47.029 magic. Because a static image or a text slogan 00:12:47.029 --> 00:12:49.169 on a billboard just doesn't grab you the same 00:12:49.169 --> 00:12:53.509 way a human voice does. Exactly. And so in 1937, 00:12:53.929 --> 00:12:56.149 news of speed rigs reaches Hill's office in New 00:12:56.149 --> 00:12:59.620 York. Hill doesn't just send a letter or make 00:12:59.620 --> 00:13:03.059 a phone call. He charters a private train. A 00:13:03.059 --> 00:13:05.360 private train. The president of one of the biggest 00:13:05.360 --> 00:13:07.759 corporations in America takes a private train 00:13:07.759 --> 00:13:10.419 from New York City down to Durham, North Carolina 00:13:10.419 --> 00:13:13.320 just to watch this one guy perform his craft 00:13:13.320 --> 00:13:15.860 in a humid warehouse. If we connect this to the 00:13:15.860 --> 00:13:18.490 bigger picture. This moment really represents 00:13:18.490 --> 00:13:20.970 the birth of brand personification of broadcast 00:13:20.970 --> 00:13:23.070 media. Oh that makes sense Yeah kill realized 00:13:23.070 --> 00:13:25.309 the consumers needed a persona to connect with 00:13:25.309 --> 00:13:29.309 the product on a visceral emotional level Radio 00:13:29.309 --> 00:13:31.990 was relatively new intimate medium at the time, 00:13:32.110 --> 00:13:34.450 right? It's right in your house Exactly when 00:13:34.450 --> 00:13:36.629 you hear a human voice breathing and speaking 00:13:36.629 --> 00:13:39.570 in your living room your brain processes it differently 00:13:39.570 --> 00:13:42.870 than reading text It creates a parasocial relationship. 00:13:42.929 --> 00:13:44.970 It feels like a trusted friend is talking to 00:13:44.970 --> 00:13:47.870 you So Hale was looking for the auditory embodiment 00:13:47.870 --> 00:13:51.590 of speed, efficiency, and southern tobacco authenticity. 00:13:51.750 --> 00:13:53.850 Nailed it. Imagine the culture shock of that 00:13:53.850 --> 00:13:57.649 meeting though. It is exactly like a major streaming 00:13:57.649 --> 00:14:00.830 network executive today flying out to a farm 00:14:00.830 --> 00:14:03.590 in the middle of nowhere to hand a multi -million 00:14:03.590 --> 00:14:07.190 dollar contract to a viral TikTok star. It's 00:14:07.190 --> 00:14:09.700 the exact same dynamic. Hill watches Riggs work 00:14:09.700 --> 00:14:14.279 the 2 .5 acre floor for one single day. Afterwards, 00:14:14.360 --> 00:14:16.679 he sits him down and says, like what you got? 00:14:17.059 --> 00:14:18.659 How'd you like to go to New York with me and 00:14:18.659 --> 00:14:21.000 be on the radio? And Riggs actually hesitated 00:14:21.000 --> 00:14:23.539 at first. Really? Yeah, he loved his life in 00:14:23.539 --> 00:14:25.100 the warehouse. I mean, he was a king in that 00:14:25.100 --> 00:14:27.700 environment. But Hill followed up with a letter 00:14:27.700 --> 00:14:30.039 pleading with him to guest appear on the show, 00:14:30.399 --> 00:14:33.039 which had been strategically renamed Your Lucky 00:14:33.039 --> 00:14:36.220 Strike Hit Parade. Clever. Very. And Riggs finally 00:14:36.220 --> 00:14:39.929 agreed to make the trip. So on December 27, 1937, 00:14:40.309 --> 00:14:43.309 he makes his radio debut. He unleashes his lightning 00:14:43.309 --> 00:14:45.909 -fast auctioneer chant to millions of listeners 00:14:45.909 --> 00:14:49.029 across the country, and he ends it with his soon 00:14:49.029 --> 00:14:51.669 -to -be -iconic sign -off, sold to American. 00:14:52.190 --> 00:14:54.629 The public response was instantaneous. The sheer 00:14:54.629 --> 00:14:56.750 novelty and rhythm of his voice just captivated 00:14:56.750 --> 00:14:58.110 the audience. And they never heard anything like 00:14:58.110 --> 00:15:01.789 it. Never. Just three months later, he was officially 00:15:01.789 --> 00:15:04.769 named the Voice of Lucky Strike. The company 00:15:04.769 --> 00:15:08.590 handed him a 22 -year contract paying $550 a 00:15:08.590 --> 00:15:11.850 week. Wow. Which was an astronomical sum for 00:15:11.850 --> 00:15:15.129 a former farm boy in the 1930s. He became a massive, 00:15:15.529 --> 00:15:17.909 undeniable celebrity. And within three years, 00:15:18.009 --> 00:15:20.090 that parasocial relationship you mentioned worked 00:15:20.090 --> 00:15:23.169 perfectly. His voice helped catapult Lucky Strike 00:15:23.169 --> 00:15:25.309 ahead of all other brands by a three -to -one 00:15:25.309 --> 00:15:27.850 margin. Get incredible. He spent 33 years doing 00:15:27.850 --> 00:15:30.350 this. He appeared on shows with legends like 00:15:30.350 --> 00:15:32.950 Jack Benny and Fred Allen. He transitioned into 00:15:32.950 --> 00:15:34.759 early time. television advertising alongside 00:15:34.759 --> 00:15:37.679 Frank Sinatra. And he wielded that massive platform 00:15:37.679 --> 00:15:40.220 with incredible influence, too. During World 00:15:40.220 --> 00:15:43.299 War II, Riggs leveraged his fame to help raise 00:15:43.299 --> 00:15:46.419 over $17 million in war bonds for the United 00:15:46.419 --> 00:15:48.480 States government. That's a huge contribution. 00:15:48.679 --> 00:15:50.879 It is. Throughout his career, it is reported 00:15:50.879 --> 00:15:54.279 he helped raise a staggering $220 million for 00:15:54.279 --> 00:15:57.340 various philanthropic organizations. He was a 00:15:57.340 --> 00:15:59.779 remarkably powerful force in shaping American 00:15:59.779 --> 00:16:02.330 consumer culture. But, you know, the very medium 00:16:02.330 --> 00:16:04.669 that made him a national star was eventually 00:16:04.669 --> 00:16:07.429 legislated out of existence. And this brings 00:16:07.429 --> 00:16:11.029 us to the final and perhaps most complex chapter 00:16:11.029 --> 00:16:13.909 of his life. Right. The landscape of public health 00:16:13.909 --> 00:16:17.889 and broadcast media underwent this seismic permanent 00:16:17.889 --> 00:16:21.049 shift. The science caught up. Exactly. As medical 00:16:21.049 --> 00:16:23.570 research solidified the lethal dangers of smoking, 00:16:24.110 --> 00:16:26.950 the government stepped in. In 1970, Congress 00:16:26.950 --> 00:16:29.090 passed the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act. 00:16:29.230 --> 00:16:32.049 This officially banned all tobacco advertising 00:16:32.049 --> 00:16:34.830 on radio and television Wow. Yeah, so with the 00:16:34.830 --> 00:16:38.129 stroke of a pen Riggs's 33 year broadcast career 00:16:38.129 --> 00:16:40.610 was over So what does this all mean? Like does 00:16:40.610 --> 00:16:43.190 he apologize? Does he pivot away from the industry? 00:16:43.409 --> 00:16:45.700 No He never publicly complained about the show 00:16:45.700 --> 00:16:48.159 being canceled, but his actions later on spoke 00:16:48.159 --> 00:16:51.340 volumes. He certainly did. By 1981, he was actively 00:16:51.340 --> 00:16:53.919 helping the tobacco industry run promotions aimed 00:16:53.919 --> 00:16:56.639 at winning back smokers. He fiercely opposed 00:16:56.639 --> 00:16:58.700 local legislation that was attempting to ban 00:16:58.700 --> 00:17:01.320 smoking in public areas, like, you know, restaurants 00:17:01.320 --> 00:17:03.799 and airplanes. He even went so far as to publicly 00:17:03.799 --> 00:17:05.940 state that he did not believe smoking tobacco 00:17:05.940 --> 00:17:09.400 caused lung cancer. He actually said that. Yes. 00:17:09.690 --> 00:17:12.750 His exact quote to the press was, anybody can 00:17:12.750 --> 00:17:16.009 have cancer of the lungs. He completely denied 00:17:16.009 --> 00:17:18.609 the overwhelming scientific consensus. How does 00:17:18.609 --> 00:17:21.609 someone defend that? Like, how are you, the listener, 00:17:21.849 --> 00:17:24.789 supposed to reconcile this man's legacy? His 00:17:24.789 --> 00:17:27.150 ultimate justification for this stance was just 00:17:27.150 --> 00:17:30.250 deeply personal. Right. He told reporters, tobacco 00:17:30.250 --> 00:17:32.369 has been good to me. Tobacco helped me climb 00:17:32.369 --> 00:17:35.569 out of poverty. All my success I owe to tobacco. 00:17:35.930 --> 00:17:38.509 This raises an important question, though. When 00:17:38.509 --> 00:17:40.910 we look at Riggs' denial of the health risks, 00:17:41.390 --> 00:17:43.950 we are looking at a profound textbook example 00:17:43.950 --> 00:17:46.990 of cognitive dissonance. Oh, absolutely. The 00:17:46.990 --> 00:17:49.150 human mind struggles incredibly hard to hold 00:17:49.150 --> 00:17:52.369 two conflicting truths simultaneously. The truths 00:17:52.369 --> 00:17:55.029 for Riggs were, I am a good person who helps 00:17:55.029 --> 00:17:57.569 charities, and my life's work promotes a product 00:17:57.569 --> 00:17:59.609 that kills millions. Those cannot exist in the 00:17:59.609 --> 00:18:02.369 same brain easily. No, they can't. Because he 00:18:02.369 --> 00:18:04.430 explicitly credited tobacco for lifting him out 00:18:04.430 --> 00:18:06.890 of rural poverty, giving a sixth grade dropout, 00:18:07.130 --> 00:18:10.130 a life of extreme wealth, fame, and the ability 00:18:10.130 --> 00:18:12.529 to do massive philanthropic good, acknowledging 00:18:12.529 --> 00:18:14.990 its lethal nature, would mean invalidating his 00:18:14.990 --> 00:18:17.990 entire existence. It's a defense mechanism. He 00:18:17.990 --> 00:18:20.029 couldn't condemn the system that rescued him, 00:18:20.089 --> 00:18:22.410 even when the evidence was undeniably clear. 00:18:23.130 --> 00:18:25.609 I mean, think about a time your own livelihood 00:18:25.609 --> 00:18:27.849 or social standing depended on something you 00:18:27.849 --> 00:18:31.309 knew deep down was morally gray. How hard is 00:18:31.309 --> 00:18:32.990 it to admit you're playing for the wrong team? 00:18:33.309 --> 00:18:36.329 Exactly. It's incredibly difficult. And the contradiction 00:18:36.329 --> 00:18:39.190 becomes even starker when you look at how he 00:18:39.190 --> 00:18:41.789 spent his later years. Right. He took his immense 00:18:41.789 --> 00:18:45.069 wealth and moved to Fullerton, California. There 00:18:45.069 --> 00:18:48.460 he established your community fund. This was 00:18:48.460 --> 00:18:51.319 a non -profit organization entirely dedicated 00:18:51.319 --> 00:18:54.039 to teaching skilled labor, specifically hands 00:18:54.039 --> 00:18:56.319 -on crafts like furniture making to youths with 00:18:56.319 --> 00:18:58.920 learning handicaps. So he is literally using 00:18:58.920 --> 00:19:01.339 the millions he made selling a deadly product 00:19:01.339 --> 00:19:03.559 to teach handicapped children how to build better 00:19:03.559 --> 00:19:06.240 futures. Yeah. It is a wildly stark contradiction. 00:19:06.400 --> 00:19:09.319 In 1982, his home state of North Carolina even 00:19:09.319 --> 00:19:11.960 honored him with a Speed Rigs Day to celebrate 00:19:11.960 --> 00:19:14.019 both his contributions to the agricultural industry 00:19:14.019 --> 00:19:16.200 and his extensive charity work. He was still 00:19:16.200 --> 00:19:18.269 very much beloved. He eventually passed away 00:19:18.269 --> 00:19:21.029 in 1987 from congestive heart failure at the 00:19:21.029 --> 00:19:24.650 age of 79. And in 2003, he was inducted into 00:19:24.650 --> 00:19:27.150 the North Carolina Agricultural Hall of Fame. 00:19:27.789 --> 00:19:30.029 Today, his name might not be known in every household, 00:19:30.509 --> 00:19:32.710 but his influence on the mechanics of media remains 00:19:32.710 --> 00:19:35.450 deeply embedded in the culture. It is said that 00:19:35.450 --> 00:19:37.450 whenever a modern auctioneer throws a bit of 00:19:37.450 --> 00:19:40.049 flair, zest, or rhythm into their chant to captivate 00:19:40.049 --> 00:19:42.410 a room, they are, whether they know it or not, 00:19:42.990 --> 00:19:45.890 directly mimicking Lee Aubrey's speed rigs. We 00:19:45.890 --> 00:19:48.329 started with a sixth grade dropout hiding under 00:19:48.329 --> 00:19:51.210 his medcovers, humming a rapid fire chant into 00:19:51.210 --> 00:19:53.329 the dark so his dad wouldn't beat him. Incredible. 00:19:53.569 --> 00:19:56.430 And we ended with the voice of an empire, a man 00:19:56.430 --> 00:19:59.490 who essentially pioneered the aggressive, personality 00:19:59.490 --> 00:20:02.250 -driven advertising that saturates every screen 00:20:02.250 --> 00:20:05.109 and speaker in our world today. He proved that 00:20:05.109 --> 00:20:07.289 a human connection, delivered with the right 00:20:07.289 --> 00:20:10.230 pacing and confidence, could bypass rational 00:20:10.230 --> 00:20:13.009 thought and move markets on a global scale. Which 00:20:13.009 --> 00:20:14.890 leaves us with a final thought for you to chew 00:20:14.890 --> 00:20:17.730 on. Speedrigs was essentially the ultimate human 00:20:17.730 --> 00:20:21.029 algorithm of his time. He used cadence, speed, 00:20:21.170 --> 00:20:24.630 and psychology to captivate millions, bypassing 00:20:24.630 --> 00:20:26.910 their logic to sell them an entire lifestyle. 00:20:27.690 --> 00:20:29.630 As you go about your day -to -day and you scroll 00:20:29.630 --> 00:20:31.630 through your feeds, listen to your audio, or 00:20:31.630 --> 00:20:33.549 watch your screens, look closely at the media 00:20:33.549 --> 00:20:37.700 you consume, Who or what is the speed rigs of 00:20:37.700 --> 00:20:40.980 your current media diet? What voices are enchanting 00:20:40.980 --> 00:20:43.259 you into buying things? And are you paying attention 00:20:43.259 --> 00:20:45.380 to the chant? Thank you so much for joining us 00:20:45.380 --> 00:20:47.099 on this deep dive into the archives. We'll catch 00:20:47.099 --> 00:20:47.599 you next time.