His final words made them BILLIONS

Explore three true stories where simple choices led to life-changing events impacting millions, including the execution of Gary Gilmore.

Key Takeaways

Small, personal decisions can have far-reaching and unexpected consequences.
Gary Gilmore’s choice to accept execution rather than life imprisonment became a cultural touchstone.
Marketing campaigns can draw powerful inspiration from real-life events to create impactful messaging.
Storytelling that combines mystery and real events can engage and educate audiences effectively.
The video illustrates the interconnectedness of individual actions and broader societal impacts.

What the video covers

The video recounts three real-life stories where seemingly small decisions had massive consequences.
It begins with Gary Gilmore, a convicted murderer executed by firing squad in 1977, who chose to face death rather than life imprisonment.
Gary's execution was highly publicized and inspired a famous marketing campaign slogan: 'life without parole.'
Ten years later, marketing executive Dan Widen used the story of Gary Gilmore’s execution as inspiration for a successful ad campaign.
The campaign dramatically boosted a small business’s growth, doubling its business almost overnight.
The video also hints at a third story involving a young man named Chris on a date in a London McDonald's, setting the stage for another impactful narrative.
Throughout, the video emphasizes how individual choices can ripple outward to affect millions of people.
The storytelling style is dark, mysterious, and engaging, consistent with MrBallen’s channel theme.
The video encourages viewers to subscribe and follow for weekly uploads of similar content.
Additional content related to these stories is available on the Redacted: Declassified Mysteries podcast and YouTube channel.

Chapters

Who was Gary Gilmore and why is he significant in this video?

Gary Gilmore was a convicted murderer executed by firing squad in 1977. His choice to accept execution rather than life imprisonment inspired a famous marketing slogan and had a lasting cultural impact.

How did Gary Gilmore’s execution influence a marketing campaign?

Ten years after Gary’s execution, marketing executive Dan Widen used the story and the phrase 'life without parole' to create a powerful ad campaign that doubled a small business’s revenue almost overnight.

What is the main theme of the video by MrBallen?

The main theme is how seemingly small or innocuous choices made by individuals can lead to profound and widespread consequences affecting millions of lives.

Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

Speaker A

Today we're going to look at three stories about real people who, at some point in their lives, made choices. Now, at the time, these choices were fairly innocuous, but eventually, those choices would completely change not only their lives but millions of other people's lives as well.

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lives as well. But before we get into those stories, if you're a fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right place because that's all we do and we upload once a week. So, if that's of

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But before we get into those stories, if you're a fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right place because that's all we do, and we upload once a week. So, if that's of

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on all notifications so you don't miss any of our weekly uploads. Okay, let's get into today's stories.

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interest to you, please steal the like button's phone and change the names of all their contacts to just say spam so that every call they get, they think it's spam and they don't answer. Also, please subscribe to our channel and turn

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of this factory. But Gary was not about to run. He'd been waiting for months for this and he was ready. So Gary along with the guards at his sides made their way towards the factory and then without any hesitation, Gary stepped inside and

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on all notifications so you don't miss any of our weekly uploads. Okay, let's get into today's stories.

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It was just basically this massive empty space and one chair pushed up against the far back wall. Gary knew he was supposed to sit in that chair. So without even being told, he just began walking across the floor towards it. And

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[Music] On January 17th, 1977, a 36-year-old man named Gary Gilmore walked towards an abandoned canned food factory in Draper, Utah. Gary was surrounded on all sides by guards because they were afraid that Gary might try to run and not go inside

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fight. He just sat there staring straight across to the other side of this factory. And on the far side of this factory was one other thing inside of the space. It was like this big curtain, like somebody had wheeled out

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of this factory. But Gary was not about to run. He'd been waiting for months for this, and he was ready. So Gary, along with the guards at his sides, made their way towards the factory, and then without any hesitation, Gary stepped inside and

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though Gary couldn't actually see anything in any of these cutouts, he knew what was behind them. He knew that at each station there was a police officer armed with a rifle. They were the firing squad that Gary himself had

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what he saw was this big cavernous open space with no equipment in it, nothing.

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lobbyed to try to change the sentence and make it a life sentence instead. But while Gary appreciated their efforts, he actually did not want that. He did not want, you know, to spend the rest of his life in prison. That was the only

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It was just basically this massive empty space and one chair pushed up against the far back wall. Gary knew he was supposed to sit in that chair. So without even being told, he just began walking across the floor towards it. And

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die by firing squad and that had been granted to him. And so after the guards had finished strapping Gary into the chair, they backed off. And then the chaplain came over and read Gary his last rights. And then after that, he

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then when he reached the chair, he sat down. And once Gary was sitting, the guards that had walked him in began strapping his wrists and his ankles to this chair so he couldn't move. And as they did this, Gary didn't put up a

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And then once everything was in place, rifles poked through the five holes in the curtain and they fired. Shortly after, Gary was dead. 10 years after Gary's execution in 1987, a young marketing executive named Dan Widen was having a meeting with his colleagues at

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fight. He just sat there staring straight across to the other side of this factory. And on the far side of this factory was one other thing inside of the space. It was like this big curtain, like somebody had wheeled out

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help them do that. And while Dan certainly believed that this company had the chance to be huge, he just felt like they lacked something. They needed a strong marketing campaign to really get them off the ground and sort of begin to

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like this massive curtain that was protecting something on the other side. And as he was staring at this curtain that was sort of perpendicular to him, he saw there were five evenly spaced cutouts across the curtain. And even

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there pitching different ideas, you know, different concepts of how we can elevate this brand. But it was like even though a lot of ideas seemed promising, nothing really felt right. Everything just sort of felt like, you know, maybe

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though Gary couldn't actually see anything in any of these cutouts, he knew what was behind them. He knew that at each station there was a police officer armed with a rifle. They were the firing squad that Gary himself had

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understand why he had this epiphany. He had not been thinking about this information until it just popped into his head. Instead, this idea really just kind of suddenly came to him. As he's sitting there with his colleagues, feeling frustrated, not knowing what to

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requested. So Gary was a convicted murderer, and he had been sentenced to death just a few months earlier. His death sentence had gotten a lot of media coverage, and immediately after the sentencing, his mother, along with the American Civil Liberties Union, had

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And Dan, like his colleagues, had certainly kept up with that story. It just it was a big deal at the time. And as Dan is sitting there just thinking about that execution, he remembered a very particular detail about the

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lobbied to try to change the sentence and make it a life sentence instead. But while Gary appreciated their efforts, he actually did not want that. He did not want, you know, to spend the rest of his life in prison. That was the only

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fuel this advertising campaign for the small business and it would work amazingly. In fact, this campaign was so successful, it literally doubled this company's business practically overnight. And this campaign, it featured a slogan that has since become arguably one of, if not the most famous

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alternative to the death sentence: life without parole. And that sounded horrible. And so instead, he had basically pushed to go forward with his execution. And he was very specific about how he wanted to die. He wanted to

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Last year, we launched a brand new podcast here at Ballin Studios called Redacted: Declassified Mysteries with Luke Lammana. And so far, you guys have loved it. And in case you haven't heard, we also launched a YouTube channel for

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die by firing squad, and that had been granted to him. And so after the guards had finished strapping Gary into the chair, they backed off. And then the chaplain came over and read Gary his last rites. And then after that, he

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binge. New uploads to this YouTube channel will be every single Tuesday. All you have to do is look up @ redacted mysteries on YouTube and I'll also be putting a link in the description below.

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asked Gary if he had anything else he wanted to say. And Gary looked up at the chaplain and just said, "Let's do it." And so the chaplain backed off, signaled to the firing squad that Gary was ready.

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[Music] One night in 2009, a 23-year-old man named Chris along with his date walked into a McDonald's in London, England.

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And then once everything was in place, rifles poked through the five holes in the curtain, and they fired. Shortly after, Gary was dead. Ten years after Gary's execution, in 1987, a young marketing executive named Dan Widen was having a meeting with his colleagues at

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There were no plans beyond this. This McDonald's was dirty. It was loud. It was packed with people. So, not exactly a romantic location for a date, but this was all Chris could afford. In fact, he really needed that job the next day

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his company's headquarters in Portland, Oregon. So Dan actually owned this marketing agency, and his company had recently signed this new client. It was a small business with a lot of promise who was hopefully looking to expand, and they were leaning on Dan and his team to

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and smiled like, "I get it. It's fine. We can eat here." So they hopped in line and they waited. Finally got to the counter. They ordered their food and their drinks. And then after receiving them, they turned around and looked for

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help them do that. And while Dan certainly believed that this company had the chance to be huge, he just felt like they lacked something. They needed a strong marketing campaign to really get them off the ground and sort of begin to

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Literally everyone. And so Chris and his date began looking for tables where, you know, there were at least a couple of empty seats. You know, maybe somebody was sitting there, but they might allow Chris and his date to sit with them. And

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make them a household name. And so this meeting that Dan was having right now with his colleagues was their attempts at coming up with, you know, what can we do? What kind of campaign can we run for this company? And so for hours they sat

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table. And critically, there were two seats at this table that were unused. And so Chris kind of tapped his date and pointed to the table. And then the two of them walked over and Chris very politely asked this guy, you know, "Hey,

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there pitching different ideas, you know, different concepts of how we can elevate this brand. But it was like even though a lot of ideas seemed promising, nothing really felt right. Everything just sort of felt like, you know, maybe

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ahead." And so Chris and his date, they sat down and they began eating and chatting and it was all fine. But as they were eating and chatting, Chris, his mind kept going to the next day. You know, he had that big job interview the

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maybe that would help. There was no slam dunk idea, at least not yet. And so as Dan is beginning to get frustrated, you know, realizing he really doesn't have any great ideas yet, he suddenly has this epiphany. Now Dan does not

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And so, he found himself not really eating and just kind of waiting for the date to be over so he could just go home, go to bed, and, you know, focus on tomorrow. But, as he's sort of distracted and his date's chatting about

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understand why he had this epiphany. He had not been thinking about this information until it just popped into his head. Instead, this idea really just kind of suddenly came to him. As he's sitting there with his colleagues, feeling frustrated, not knowing what to

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the date does not seem friendly. And so Chris realizes, okay, what's going on here? Did she say something? Did he say something? And so Chris kind of snaps out of his anxiety about the interview and he looks at this guy and he's like,

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do, he just randomly found himself thinking about the execution of Gary Gilmore 10 years earlier, death by firing squad. It was all over the news.

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is like, "What's going on here?" He's looking at his date like, "Did I miss something?" think, you know, remember he was sort of distracted a minute ago, but then eventually this guy, he says to Chris's date, you're an ugly pig. And at

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And Dan, like his colleagues, had certainly kept up with that story. It just, it was a big deal at the time. And as Dan is sitting there just thinking about that execution, he remembered a very particular detail about the

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going to fight him here. But as soon as he did that, Chris realized he had made a horrible mistake because Chris, he was only about 5'8 in tall. And this guy, just the way he'd been sitting at the

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execution that, for whatever reason, just felt like, oh my goodness, we can use that to market this brand. Dan would take a well-known detail from the execution of Gary Gilmore. He would tweak it slightly, and he would use it to

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kind of looks up at this guy and he just kind of winds up and hits him once. But then this huge guy just proceeds to beat the living crap out of Chris right there in the McDonald's. The next morning,

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fuel this advertising campaign for the small business, and it would work amazingly. In fact, this campaign was so successful, it literally doubled this company's business practically overnight. And this campaign, it featured a slogan that has since become arguably one of, if not the most famous

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this total jerk. You know, eventually the guy had stopped and stepped off of Chris and Chris had gotten back up again and the guy kind of wandered off and was not held to account in any way. He just

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slogans for any business in the entire world. The slogan that Dan created as part of this very famous campaign was based directly on Gary Gilmore's final words: just do it. Dan's client, that small business, was Nike.

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like, "No, it's fine." And they just wanted to get out of there. And so they left the McDonald's and they both, you know, went to their respective homes and Chris just went to bed. And then the next morning when Chris got up early cuz

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Last year, we launched a brand new podcast here at Ballin Studios called Redacted: Declassified Mysteries with Luke Lammana. And so far, you guys have loved it. And in case you haven't heard, we also launched a YouTube channel for

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I mean, they're going to ask about his black eye. And what's he going to say?

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Redacted, where you can not only listen to these episodes but also watch the beautiful animations we've done for each of these episodes. That channel already has 150,000 subscribers, and it's growing really quickly, and there are hours of content available right now for you to

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know what, this is the biggest opportunity I've ever had. I just going to go in there, try to be confident, and don't let the black eye define the outcome. And so, fast forward to later that morning, Chris goes into the

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binge. New uploads to this YouTube channel will be every single Tuesday. All you have to do is look up @redactedmysteries on YouTube, and I'll also be putting a link in the description below.

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be able to describe what happened even though it didn't make him look good but it was like the fact that they're staring at it and not acknowledging it.

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Wonder Plus subscribers can also watch Redacted on the Wondery app. Okay, back to the stories.

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them for the opportunity and he left thinking, "I'm not going to get the job." However, not long after this interview, Chris got some shocking news.

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[Music] One night in 2009, a 23-year-old man named Chris, along with his date, walked into a McDonald's in London, England.

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was this guy who sort of got into fights. And so Chris rolls in here looking like a guy who gets into fights.

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The following day, Chris had a very important job interview in the morning. And so this dinner in McDonald's was going to be the last part of the date.

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starred in became one of the most popular TV shows in the entire world. And so Chris went from being this guy who could barely afford a a dinner at McDonald's to being this amazing actor who was getting nominated for Golden

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There were no plans beyond this. This McDonald's was dirty. It was loud. It was packed with people. So, not exactly a romantic location for a date, but this was all Chris could afford. In fact, he really needed that job the next day

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[Music] One night in 1925, a 21-year-old college student named Ted was inside of his dorm room at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire surrounded by his friends. Ted and his friends had gotten their hands on a bottle of gin. And so tonight, they

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because he just didn't have much money. But for now, this was the best he could do. And so he put on, you know, his best smile and looked at his date like, "Is this okay?" And s

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the United States in 1925, the country was in the middle of prohibition, which meant no one was allowed to possess or consume alcohol. It was actually illegal. But Ted specifically was willing to take that risk because tonight he wanted to celebrate. Ted was

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a senior in college and was getting ready to graduate with honors. And also, he had recently been named the editor-inchief of Dartmouth's humor magazine called Jacko'Lantern. This was a big deal for Ted. I mean, he had aspirations of graduating and becoming a

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professional writer and publisher, and it just felt like everything was falling into place, you know, getting this job as editor-inchief. It was a huge accomplishment. So, Ted took a swig from the bottle and passed it around the circle, and before long, he and his

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friends were all pretty drunk and having a great time, laughing and joking and telling stories. It was a lot of fun.

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But at some point, they heard a knock on their door. And right away, Ted and his friends went silent, you know, remembering that, "Oh my god, are we in trouble now?" You know, Ted said, "No, it's fine. and I'm sure it's just, you

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know, more friends coming to stop by and hang out with us. And so Ted, he gets up, he goes to the door, and, you know, his heart's racing a little bit cuz he doesn't know who's there. He opens the

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door and it's not friends, it's two police officers. And so Ted and his friends all got busted for drinking alcohol. However, fortunately for them, the police did not press charges and so nobody went to jail. And also the

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school, Dartmouth, decided not to expel Ted or any of his friends. However, they were dealt some pretty severe punishments. Specifically, Dartmouth stripped Ted of all of his academic honors and extracurriculars, which meant he was no longer the editor-inchief of

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the Jacko'Lantern magazine. In fact, he was told by the school that not only was he no longer the editor-inchief, but he couldn't even submit to put anything in writing into that magazine. He was totally banned. Ted was heartbroken,

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less so about the academic honors and much more so about being, you know, cut off from the Jacko'Lantern magazine. He really had attached a lot of value to being the editor-inchief. He felt like things were going in the direction of

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him graduating and becoming this professional writer. And so this was sort of a devastating blow. Ted considered fighting with Dartmouth to try to reinstate himself with the magazine, but the more he thought about it, the more he knew that was going

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nowhere. They were not going to change their mind. However, Ted was not quite ready to just totally give up on this magazine. He knew this magazine did accept submissions from the public. And so, he thought, "Okay, well, you know,

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I'm not allowed to submit anything to this magazine, but maybe if I come up with a different name, a pen name, then I can submit my work, they won't know it's me, and maybe I can get something published." And so, that's exactly what

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Ted began doing. And the new editor-inchief of this magazine had no idea this pen name was actually Ted. And so when they received the work from the pseudonym, they thought it was some new person they had never heard of. And they

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were so wowed by the work. They're like, "This is great." And they began publishing all of Ted's work, not realizing it was his. And for Ted, oddly enough, this became, in some ways, more satisfying than when he was writing

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under his own name. He kind of liked this pen name. Kind of, you know, fit the vibe of his writing. And so he just continued up with this ruse for the rest of the time he was at Dartmouth. And

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then after he graduated, he just continued to write under this pen name. Throughout the rest of his life, Ted would write and illustrate over 60 books all under this pen name, a name he came up with basically just because he got

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caught drinking in the dorm in college. These books would entertain and inspire generations of people. And in fact, he would even win a Pulit surprise for his contribution to American literature and education. Ted's full name was Theodore Geel, but I'm sure you know him much

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better by his pen name, which is Dr. Seuss. In case you haven't heard yet, our newest graphic novel, Mr. Ballin Presents Where Nightmares Live, is available for pre-order right now. It contains another nine heartstoppping, strange, dark, and mysterious stories,

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all based on real events. This was a passion project. It took a lot of time, a lot of people involved from the artwork to the storytelling. I mean, this is a beautiful piece to add to your collection. So, you got to check it out.

Speaker A

The book comes out on September 30th, but again, you can pre-order your copy at book.bballinsstudios.com or you can click the link in the description below. There are a limited number of hands-ed copies available, but those are going to sell out very

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quickly. So, please pre-order today because remember, your nightmares are waiting. Thank you so much for watching. Let me know what you thought of today's episode in the comments. And remember, we have hundreds of videos for you to binge

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right now. But if you're looking for a recommendation from me of that one video that's worth your time, well, it's this one right here. So give it a watch. All right, until next time. See you.

Topics:Gary Gilmorefiring squaddeath penaltymarketing campaignlife without paroleMrBallentrue storiesreal life choicesRedacted Mysteriesstorytelling

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