Blood, Brains & Beer: The Autobiography of David Ogilvy
(Creator of one of the biggest advertising agencies in the...)
Creator of one of the biggest advertising agencies in the world. In this book, he recalls his adventures as a chef in a Paris hotel, selling stoves in Scotland (particularly to nuns), running a polling service in Hollywood, working for British Intelligence with Sir William Stephenson ("Intrepid"), and farming among the Amish in Pennsylvania.
(This is a business book unlike any other: a straightforwa...)
This is a business book unlike any other: a straightforward and incisive look at subjects such as salesmanship, management, and creativity, presented in Ogilvy's trademark crisp prose. Whether carefully prepared for a lecture or as a private joke to a friend, his writing always underlines the importance of the rule "it pays an agency to be imaginative and unorthodox."
In 1936, Mr. Ogilvy began work at London-based agency Mather & Crowther, where his older brother Francis as general manager. In 1938, Mather & Crowther sent Mr. Ogilvy to New York to learn about U.S. advertising. He extended his stay to work for George Gallup as associate director of the Audience Research Institute in Princeton, New Jersey. World War II postponed Mr. Ogilvy's advertising ambitions, and after three years with Gallup, he joined British intelligence in 1942; he later worked in the British embassy in Washington. After the war, he spent a brief time as a farmer in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. From 1944 to 1945, he was a Second Secretary at the British Embassy in Washington.
In 1948, Mr. Ogilvy went to his brother at Mather & Crowther with a plan to launch a "British agency" in the U.S. Mather & Crowther and S.H. Benson Ltd., another London shop, each invested $45,000 in the new venture, and Anderson Hewitt was chosen to run the shop. The agency opened in September 1948 under the name Hewitt, Ogilvy, Benson & Mather. Mr. Ogilvy merged his agency with Mather & Crowther in 1964 and served as chairman until 1965 when he dropped that title in favor of the title creative director. The next year he shortened the agency's name to Ogilvy & Mather and formed a holding company, Ogilvy & Mather International, with himself as chairman. Later that year he took the company public. From 1957 to 1967, Ogilvy was a director at New York Philharmonic in New York.
In 1973, Mr. Ogilvy gave up day-to-day management duties and moved to Bonnes, France, where he and his third wife, Herta Lans, took up residence in a chateau called Touffou. Despite the distance from Madison Avenue, Mr. Ogilvy remained in close touch with the advertising business. In 1975, Mr. Ogilvy retired as chairman of OMI but continued to influence agency affairs that interested him and to represent the company to clients. He unsuccessfully fought a hostile takeover by Martin Sorrell's WPP Group in 1989. By the late 1990s, he ceased active involvement with the agency.
Ogilvy was one of the best-known figures in the world of advertising, having built the company Ogilvy & Mather into an international giant in the industry. His company’s clients included Rolls-Royce, Shell Oil, and Pepperidge Farm, as well as the shirt company Hathaway, whose ads always featured the eyepatch- wearing “Hathaway Man.” Among the campaigns that established his reputation were his "man in the eyepatch" ads for Hathaway shirts, his "Commander Whitehead" campaign for Schweppes and a print ad for Rolls-Royce that carried the headline, "At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock."
In 1962, Time called him "the most sought-after wizard in today's advertising industry".
Ogilvy believed the best way to sell customers on a product - and selling products was foremost in his mind - was to talk to them intelligently and explain why they should want the product, rather than simply entertaining them with an eye-catching ad.
Quotations:
“The consumer is not a moron, she is your wife.”
Membership
Ogilvy was a member of the Copywriters Hall of Fame and the Advertising Hall of Fame.
Interests
Gardening.
Connections
On July 6, 1973, Ogilvy married Herta Lans. They had one son, David Fairfield.