A conversation about advertising, with David Ogilvy
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A conversation about advertising, with David Ogilvy

well I want to go in the agency business New York and there's only one agency I wanted to work for that was Young & Rubicam I was tremendously impressed by them and by Raymond or the convicted I wanted to work here so I didn't think I could ever get a job I had no qualifications no credentials I didn't even dare ask so the old time to take the only alternative was to start my own which is what I did what was your first job when he came to the United States I had terribly good luck I was I had to get a job in a hurry so I was staying to see reducer sound I made $10 left and I was offered a job by George Gallup take our he hired me to go to Princeton and do some research with motion picture industry the greatest break I've had my life if you ever go to a country to do nothing about it work start by getting a job than the local Gallup poll you learn a lot from it but the people who live in the country the majors what makes them tick and what the habits and what they think that happened to me I got working for Gallagher Christian what did you learn from garlic that was most helpfully oh I learned so much from Gallup I suppose the most have I've learnt the research business birthday in particular he taught me the concept of analysing the factors which make for success in advertising the factors which make up a way it was done research directed young and Rebecca was before he started out with Robinson and that's been in do you think your research background creat conditions you created see what was started over when maybe there were nothing are we about that big now we've got to distinguish for something nothing I know but this research I said well there's specialized and creative asset before we did anything never since deadly the research important for our base of operations has been tremendous it's too much now that is pretty support on the right side is there good what coming how and why did you start your own agency I don't know why did I start my own agency well I want to go in the agency business new and there's only one agency I wanted to work for nervous young America I was tremendously impressed by their and by revenue or became particular I wanted to work there I didn't think I could ever get a job I had no qualifications no credentials I didn't even dare ask to your time to take the only alternative was to start my own which is what I did but my admiration for Young & Rubicam is still prevails I'm given to this day a hundred years later when did you feel that overly evader was really beginning to be a successful agency Oh about a month ago come on I saw the fillings figures and advertising agents or don't with me they've gone up to fifth place so it dawned on they did as a successful agency 25 years after we started and I think it takes about 25 years to build a good successful stable agency conquered overnight but there it is now under yeah I feel like an old dog with a puppy I don't recognize it as my son anymore I've closed the detached from it it's grown beyond me and it's not very successful fill me but many years you know John I was terrified I lived in terror it would blow away we were going very bad we were very successful I didn't realize the time how successful we were strongly when I thought every day it's been a blow away something's going to happen we're gonna lose a big town was started run on the back vacation we didn't do is a bigger time never started on all the day I was always terrified no I'm not any longer you've built your top staff by recruiting from agencies do you still have people from other agencies or do you expect them to be homegrown what I have for years but we're recruiting mantra we're promoting almost entirely from within we almost never go outside of high levels I think it's a pity I think between time to time it's a good thing of an agency to refresh its bloodstream by bringing somebody in from another area of a discipline even another agency it's almost all health and our promotion for me first in the other days we have no choice you can't promote from within if there's nobody within what probably distinguish the agency most in its early years with I was I suddenly had an idea from air which is too big guide to oysters and so standing that I would have an idea well I got out of the station I would obtain at the next stop and called in the office and said you won't believe I've had an idea and this was my first advertisement beginner's guide to hoisters it led to a series Guinness guide to game birds to steak to other things to cheese it was my first advancement and to get owned in a New Yorker most buyers in those days only that was the first one that was a good ad now the Hathaway shirt the man is a hack away shirt yes were hired by the Hathaway company in Waterville Maine the head of pathway came in to see me said we're a hundred and six years old we've never advertised but then to start advertising will you do it I was very crass in those days I said how much what's what he's been spending he said thirty thousand dollars like he ever fell for my eye he said I'll tell you what I know it's very small but if you take the account I'll make you two promises I've never changed a word you write I never fired so we started advertising halfway shirts and we did the account ever ties in for about 20 years and never changed the word we wrote and this is the first air the man in the eye patch here's where research came in handy I'd read a book called attention and respect as an advertising by haldudo we've been research director and the wonderful potential agency need god effect which he calls story appealing picture and he showed that the more story appeal was in a picture the first the more people would go to end so I wanted to do an ad for these Hathaway shirts I wanted to find him magic and reading the story of people so after dinner one night got my set timer of 18 ideas this half of my advertising for the story of the 11th the 18th was the ifetch that was the one we used and that lasted for 19 years that can't be because it's pretty good advertising apart from this the eye patch the copy is very good it's all about the product you don't mess around and follows all the things I think we should example maybe the pram name is in every third line that's a good campaign also under random New Yorker but was really the half way campaign which risk with rest you've ever been made there from obscurity how about the sweats campaign Marrakesh works is here that came shortly afterwards Schweppes decided to invade the United States market and our client appeared an Englishman it was going to manage the office New York automatic white it would left the Navy shortly before and I met him and we made him we persuaded him to be the sort of personal embodiment of the image of switch to appear in all the investments and here is the first Schweppes investment commander fighted arriving in new york command from the Schweppes is here he told me afterwards I said what was in that briefcase which looked as if it was full of the secret formula to church he said apparently my bathing suit that was what was in it that camp had lasted for 19 years it would a good idea is it one taste for good ideas how long would it last and that that fight aid campaign for swept started for 19 years – now Rolls Royce at sixty miles an hour the loudest going to the clock that's a good ad isn't it I didn't write that headline it's a quotation from an article that should have cared about 20 years before and an English short my dear magazine lets it pretend I don't know anything about two automobiles in those days and we were hired by rolls-royce has been C which reading up on rolls-royce and came across that observation good and all effects no adjectives or specific sold a lot of cars beneath my bed very much and I think more than anything else it led to us getting the shellicopter that's the next up vertically shale one of the poor threads yeah yeah this is one of the first ads we did the show in newspapers they were running about five of these in those days shall be using all the media before we went to work phone newspapers magazines television radio outdoor and they didn't think they were using so many masters if we should drop one well we went and talked to all the people in shelving said if you have to talk all with just one medium which would you drop they all gave the same axis that we dropped newspapers imagine their surprise when we recommended that they should use only newspapers that's what they did for you we had C for these big as a week they worked along with two other very important factors in their marketing mix this show campaign arresting the decline and share of market that should be going on for some years we were the first people as far as I know whoever actually advertised the gasoline the people not a ghastly an advertising before but we talked about the product and we told people what when did the product all ingredients in a gallon of gas leak and of what they did for them I'd always thought until that the casting was brought out to the earth by I well but in the carb it's more complicated that there's a lot in it in advertising gasping newspapers for year we started in television and we did these mighty commercials these are the tracks of a Santa Fe stretching west through Arizona Indian country here the land of the Navajo Europe and the Petrified Forest three trans 160 million years old long since turned to stone up ahead the fantastic rocks of Oak Creek Canyon now our tracks turn south curving through the mountains past the old ghost towns finally the tracks unwind 24 miles straight as a rifle shot now the tracks are cleared not for a train but for an automobile in a moment engineers of the Shell Oil Company will send this car down these straight rails in an unusual demonstration of gasoline mileage top quality gasoline czar blends of various ingredients each is there for a reason we're about to demonstrate a mileage ingredient called platform eight first we try super shell but with platform eight left out one gallon we start and let her go no hills and no traffic to effect my lecture and no driver let's see how far we get without flat pony half hour later out of fuel coasting to a stop let's mark the spot go back to the beginning and try super shell with platform 8 1 gallon same Ford Galaxie same speed if that firm 8 really works we ought to go further here's where we stopped before but with platform 8 we keep right on going more than a mile farther that's why we blend platform eights into super shell we do everything we can at Shell to make our assign stand for excellence in the products we bring you in the service we give you at Shell stations everywhere maybe now look at Porto Rico the advertisement with the empty room and the cello is that super dad isn't it wonderful it's another example story appeal in the picture the obvious thing would have been to show this show pub like a cell sitting there playing the cello instead we showed this empty room with the cello meaning against the chair that's story if your why is the romantic they go over here read the copy and that's all about the product in castles Festival and they read the copy they call their travel agents and buy a ticket that for the week of campaign of ours which is been going on off and on for about more than 20 years the directives were getting hired by Sears Roebuck in Chicago and here's one of our first pants how to find me at Sears that's a good at losing essentially editorial format one of a long series the Robert do we started advertising tab about twenty years ago and that campaign didn't change much for twenty years it's been a very successful product it's got a good margin we started off so much in The New Yorker with fancy camp things like Hathaway and rolls-royce and Guinness and I remember one day a delegation came to see us from fronting gamble in Cincinnati who came into my office they were spouting us they're wondering if they should give us it back I'm very excited to get a visit from Procter gamble I've got all these New Yorker sophisticated as food on pinned up on our bulletin board and they talked to people kept on looking down at oh my god then there goes the ball game I remember Harris don't think we're only good advertising the carriage trade I said don't look the knows it and the man from Procter well instead of thing I like very much he said we assume that if you're as good at solving that kind of problem as you are you be good at solving other kinds of problems he pretty well I don't think then a horse but the following day we got hired by Lehman Brothers in New York so they got there first and we went to work today advantage that leader brothers is in New York and since the net is a long way wedding those days you went there by train it took forever I didn t can we see some commercials you'd like beginning with the Mets well house hopefully two and we're tagging suggest that that's one of my favorites – max house commercial that ran on the air for years there's too much difference between various fancy coffee mum which gets to be a shared market is the one of the first image and Maxwell House owes its place in the market I think really to an advertising campaign which a Walter Thompson did for me from 1918 on the next three years in the printer and they gave metalize unique image and then we went over the Benjamin bows they did a marvelous job on the image of that to us then they were going to change a game and I remember my old friend roust are back from the old advertising derivative General Foods had retired but here said General Foods only through agencies which and do this job for that last one is the FNS in Chicago and the other Soviet way the New York he came to us and this one commercial is signature but all weekend before about isms all of the product you notice the product was the hero I'm very keen on it there's no extraneous stunning all about coffee when we first got he come I went over with so much on my friends colleagues to their back to Hoboken and you could smell the coffee being roasted to pavement her broken I said someone in the car doesn't call his smell one with they tasted as good as it smells and we use that sub promise back to house tastes as good as it smells stem super mushroom suits made by committee I always say committees can create they did so I hope that thing tastes as good as it smells and somebody else either be before doe day before and the idea that perky coffee party three of us got together on that commercial was just foolish different no rules committees empty here's one of our other early commercials for Pepperidge Farm brave that first television commercial there's something in this commercial that I like particularly you see the old Baker driving up the lane the pair of white horses it was an idea I had my sleep I dreamed it and I woke up I had the good fortune to wake up to money where's it down say you want old-fashioned home baked apple turnovers you just opened up a package of them new a pastry turnovers from pepperidge farm pop them in your oven still 498 and watch your eyes when they get freaky and saw the golden brown they're done Maggie's making up pastry and Apple blueberry raspberry and lemon turnovers but up pastry and all she's baking there's apple strudel the likes of which you've never set your teeth into that apple strudel in a heart for that name work say pick up a bag – pepperidge farm frozen pastries at the store they taste mighty good cause your baked of yourself now we're looking at the Nationwide Insurance commercial the burning house yeah John it's awfully hard for me to think one or two commercials from all the hundreds thousands we've made but this nationwide commercial I personally like very much I find it very moving it's real it's true it actually happen it's an actual house actual owner the house watch it would completely ruined the fire absolutely got in our house nobody was hurt and we staged some of the furniture but everything else is gone and because of what inflation has done to rebuilding costs even our insurance isn't enough we had a fire in the fireplace and it caught in adjoining wall that was it I just had baby this was upstairs completely destroyed insurance gave us every penny they said it but it's not enough thanks to inflation because of this Nationwide Insurance has a homeowner's plan that keeps pace with inflation month whether building costs go up or down it's based on US Department of Commerce cost indexes and it helps make sure that if your house burns down you get it back homeowners insurance with inflation protection part of nationwide blanket protection for your family or your business we're trying to sell as it lands good in your experience where do creative people come from it's a very good question because success in the advertising business depends more than anything else on your ability to pick good satire talented creative people how do you identify well I don't know died recently asked twelve four five best creative people around the world but they look for when they're hiring young creative men at work and they sent me Mom memos about it there's some threads which run through all of them they looked at people with a sense of humor that seems to be important they look people for people so Jerry ah City about robotics others we look for people who will stick to their guns one for service they look for people who have original – they look for hard-working people I wish that the people interested in advertising and we've read about advertising on this list do you think creative skill can be taught after five years you can teach people their trade you can teach people what factors makes it a success where to look for good ideas what things for a bite because they don't work you can't teach your native talent I think yes Brian are you can teach it and teaching is very important most teaching my first payment most be teaching agencies today is what's called on-the-job training you're supposed to learn this to go long in your boss if your boss doesn't know anything how the hell can you teach you in it and advertising has to be is being taught certainly not after today in a more formal way we've organized a corpus of knowledge into a series of audio-visual presentations we called magic lamps and I find that a very useful teaching aid well yes you've done probably farther in codifying your ideas about the creation of advertising making effective at almost anyone else do you find this is acceptable to writers and art directors which are first of all I must say they aren't my ideas these Spencer Kings went on a note researching the reaction consumers for advertising and some that we distilled factors and what we're telling people is not my idea is we're telling how the consumer reacts to different stimuli what does the second part of the question is it acceptable to writer is anything that I've directed well it's acceptable to someone it's an atomo to others once they don't life is productive if you don't work somewhere else but it most good fit if you have a beer burning curiosity and if we can tell them what works and what doesn't work that bit amount and find out some do assisted thing I was talking to a copywriter who totally never read a single book about advertising he prefer to rely on is only instant and I said look here supposing you got an acute appendicitis you have to be operated on tonight would you like to have a surgeon who's read some books of anatomy and those hadn't do that operation now would you prefer search refused read all books about natural and relied on his own minister why should benefactor bet his money perhaps the future is coming and your instinct rather ones who studied the most most interested in the codification which is changes all the time not as much as you see let me ask you in picking greedy people there's academic background matter I brought hot potato soup sanitation he's been in his grave for about four years but Hopkins leave that to anybody with a college education should be disqualified from creating advertising but he because he was a fancy damp in college automatically important to talk to her to the American mass market because since then the American mass markets become much better educated itself and being folk down much of Carroll education I don't know I like people with well-furnished – I don't care whether they got it in college or they got it – selling newspapers of living no education then I haven't got a college to create myself I suppose it could be said that all over the advertising realized strongly on rationality that is detailed reason why every time I say this if you were going to advertise a product imagine the joy at a dinner party and the woman next to you says I have to buy a new car have you an advice to offer at which car should I buy and I tell her why didn't you should find Mercedes Benz that what we advocate and she says why ever said is Benz well I don't sings when driving puppets or time for the barrage of the hidden persuasion oh right give a rational reasons when you advertise in your the reason why serious more you tell the more yourself that's been demonstrated in research that the fastest story David didn't you once say if you have nothing to study singing yeah well I hear all these singing a song things on the TV I can't hear what they say the words are inaudible I said right people if you insist on singing your advertising message ok record it and then play it to a few people and ask them what did it say we take time to tell you what music says what the words say Virginia try game John supposing you're a housewife and I ring the bell of your own you come to the door and I start singing at you you think a lunatic was outside supposing you went into a store and bought us that one by a frying pan you've got to save themselves may I have a franc then you start singing at you would you think if we've got some the steps on that generally speaking commercials with voiceover sound sound under the words members aware I'm wrong about that I know I'm wrong it's it it's Webster themself Oh almost all our commercials have what about the balance between freedom that account exactly the balance between creative boundaries well it isn't a balance it's out of balance in most agencies including our own and most offices around the world the account executives outnumber the copywriters biracial teams in life with you a dairy farmer he kept cows would you employ twice as many voters as you have powers in the agency business today as far as I remember only about one in ten of the employees is in the favorite device I understand incidentally John I don't believe in this specialization whose sin is one leader pet which is mechanically and then are the creating people that might defer this has been perpetuated by both sides we as its monster I think I tend to get into a period of generalization generally where you have people of both Account Executives and popularity what about planets after operating an agency for 25 years how do you feel about for some of my best friends of travels we've got get on with outcomes and that the great thing is to have the right ties to the Friends of agencies intensive class mystifying maps the map so that the relationship is a good happy marriages fructify and unhappy marriages don't and it's a terrible fact that's the wrong reason sarong of the agency relationship Sofia but happy one continue one productive one do you think there are differences in the perception of advertising between top many for the clients and say brand managers yes indeed because offensive where the top management of times come from if the head of a big corporation has been their house lawyer he want to have much idea advertisement in this speech a motherboard if on the other hand like some of their heads of comfort I know they started as brand managers or advertising Avengers so no matter generally speaking I find that the top deepen companies take a broader view of their advertising and I think it's often a more intelligent few and they're more prepared to delegate to the agency the creative job I went into an awful problem as I got older agency business I became impatient began track managers and I found it very difficult to put up with what I thought I would try to give chance advice races I wanted to save the ventures what i would do if i am your business and a lot of agencies and i don't like the can't take any part in the advertiser there's other people i'm sorry what a crazy people all fit was simplified into the creation it's very hard to sell towards the clouds money it's the grants product and it's the good name of the track shouldn't he be allowed was saving it's insured here is an air you don't like it you're down you don't you change whether it's enjoy advertising but it's his product with this man it's this country I've had some very good relationship sometimes where we were dating for operative job the end and a half way said come fish many years Everton Jetta he used to send me deluge with with ideas for Hathaway as I gets a 10 a month and I'd so bust him away it allows it but every tenth I'd use and certainly one day you find by sending do ideas tell anyone there's been a tendency to things have more and more marketing expertise has tended to move to the client from the agency is this your experience yes it is was it started out like that years and years ago all the marketing work didn't exist in Moses was done in the class organizations agency trusted ads and then will become started ecologist merchandise in typography called marketer is Archer same thing and for a few years the clients have been taking it back and of course they will recruiting in the same pool maidens the business today we go to the Harvard Business School Northwest and important where everything maybe in recruit and that I transferred the same placement with the same people and the clients have brand managers product managers the agency can't be plain interchangeable and a more and mortgages identities he spent on earth is getting more which certainly is truer today it was 25 years ago the plants are doing more with me less easily good thing I don't however that's a good thing or bad thing I didn't expected not to duplicate the function we're pretty sure who is responsible for part I'm sorry to say a lot of advertising managers around the world I think it's increasing there are a small minded people we're looking at the whole advertising thing through the wrong end of the telescope they're looking at I get to see how small round and say how big a result I get out the agency says he's seen one in person so 19 times as much for product as another at the same product the difference is the order had to do with 19 to 1 and that's what the advertising managers should be worrying about and not how cheese bearing can I be with our agency this is a very serious disease the advertising managers who play that bran the end of the telescope can other tonight they do they do that companies in reparable damage this time they pull the first lon you didn't originate the fee system of compensation but you clearly preempted the protagonist position how do you feel about it now I tell you product into the protagonist position when we got the the shellicopter we were asked to be handed on a fee be told we had so I've read through it in suffice some of my others and better is in the advertising agency world and I thought this is gonna leak out you can't keep this a secret and when it leaks out people are gonna say over being made the cop that account they cut the price it wasn't true so we came out with it where the investment until the advertising world of glass we forgot something actually I fee was bigger than the Commission I glanced it because I want to pay by feet not by Commission I once when you've come to me and say spend more on advertising I don't want to suspect your motive he said I don't care what the fees it's immaterial charge what you think to me there's a way what's the second half of your question do you still feel like the protagonist for the food oh I'm bored to tears for the subject Johnny we've got that and I got so sickly whenever I don't see if I'm all they want to talk about was our system of compensation I married I didn't want to talk about that at all I want to talk about advertising if you go to see your lawyer or you discuss with your lawyer or your doctors the theory about how you better pay yeah so I got fed up with it I don't care how people pay as long as they pay so now it's almost even make a decent profit doctor let me ask the question again do you hire people from outside well you know when you were happy from outside it's very important how you did it how you doing we had a board meeting some time ago and when we sat down every director had to displace one of these Chinese dolls and I said open it I said lets you open it so they opened it and the doll got smaller and smaller and they opened it up each one but smaller and and finally they got the very inside is little tiny doll in here and in it they found a little mater which I had written and I read out and tell you what it says unfolded it it said if you always hire people who are smaller than you are we should become a company of Dwarfs if on the other hand you always hire people always bigger than you are we should become a company of giants so let's go up from there I'm done it was how much I I think I practice what I preach I have job there it was country gonna be and and professional HD still before them psychologically to run that smaller and they we talk about media for a mobile do you think advertising on television is a good idea what do you think of television HD I don't have a portent of programming optimize what's up like an advertising on television of course is certainly a terrific advertising any product that's remote product nothing like it for moving merchandise whether it's good for the body politic that in general to have everyone on television is oh there's another question all together someone said the other day the sound of selling is the third time and if you've got the Box on for four or five hours a day which is what most people tell you commercials and I don't particularly care for the interruption of wonderful programs were commercially I don't much devil in Europe is much better control in France for example and the commercials don't interrupt the programs they've become between the program same thing in Germany European countries don't have the Latin America like booze and cigarettes yeah well what about the advertising good is it a better business in print in the United States it's worse I believe that magazine advertising today by seeing a taxi is not as good as it was 25 years it's a dying art the big agencies today mostly mummy about less than 20 percent their billing isn't from most of it in TV the TV has been getting better and better and prints getting worse and worse this is getting to be very serious problem I was talking to a big international advertiser girl a huge they said we've got products which we want to put in magazines the various reasons one of them big with the budget operated big enough for television we can't find agencies which do good print advertise it's a dying art they don't know anything about it you know there's more research has been done on food advertising any other get they say we've talked to these agencies all over the world they don't know any of that research they don't know how to do it the television has got that of course expected and Printers but West I mean I'm off the interested I suppose because I started there and I have time to bring about a sort of Renaissance of print advertising where I can radio advertising radio is the Cinderella media I was sayin as opposed in New York I don't know what the percentages which it's one of the smaller media but today have more advertisers are finding they just can't afford to be a television so where do they go a radio is one of the places they can go when it comes to radio advertising is a very serious shortage of research I know quite a lot about how to make good TV commercials and how to make good printer I don't know much about how to make good radio commercials so I can't lay my hands on research we've done a little experimental we said try to find out what effect is making people a commercial it's under a search and I do I pay the radio advertise the radio media to get together sponsorship good research to teach us people in the ad business how to use it more effectively some countries if it had not been advertising what else would you have chosen to work here well I would have had to find trying to find something else I could do I would like to be naughty ologist I would have been good at it and we'd like to be an in-district professor I thought that that's what I started out to God knows I did an interesting thing I don't if you know what to write do it but I find out what – I bought a book on the IQ and at the back were several tests night minister I did the first one Brian if I wasn't going to be a hundred and seventy continues I don't maybe a hundred and forty hundred and forty five she's got a good lawyer by Tara I did this first test I looked up my spine god is some mistake I get six of them I got the same result every time 96 which is tired for ditch-diggers thank God I didn't know that when I was a kid because I have gone on limited to get perfumey and get is up by Magus often discovery no I've done see what I can this all for handicapped but things have done and I've managed to do very well in spite of it already for me I don't suppose I have every chance to find out you're often clearly with having invented the concept of branding I know I'm kidding that's what happened was there was a Harvard Business Review no concept about it I would I had to make this speech to Friday's meeting short very few people read this aspect the Harvard Business Review so I took it and made a popular speech hardly reached much large audience and then sort of put the brand image concept on the map it was therefore their idea there is that their sponsor and my evangelist woody not happy first are they this is a lot of example but does that matter when Isaac my god do somebody I've had to keep on calling us up and say what's our brand image what do we just say it's not considered enough by advertisers as much as daughter generally speaking the brand with the most favorable image is the one which is speaking a brand image is it difficult to research it's not very difficult it's impossible when it's impossible to most commercials today of being tested for a call one commercial is tested once for court I don't have any advertiser any client who believes in the system I don't have any agency which believes in it I don't have any creative person of reason and they all go on doing it I don't know why very demoralized but if you accept the idea that the image of the product is a long-term serious determinant effective we've got to put advertising out which will create or furnish that image over a period of many years there's no research and they all want to use for such as someone said wasn't the other they use the search as a drunkard uses an applet for support and not for elimination this is a very important you cannot use the search to predict which say six campaigns are two campaigns we're in the long run do the most for the brand judge game I think said it's not a job for kids that I think that the more mature more experience that doesn't happen like the heads of public companies you know oh Jesus new agency business life made judgment the long-term effects an advertising campaign in the beginners you are also further than with inventing the concept of position is that broken I never invented the concept of position you so big what past Wednesday whenever I go all our offices everybody talks about positioning from on tonight and another thing the same thing they don't I said I wrote the heads of all our offices Saturday and so he sent me a telex defining what you mean by the word position in fifteen words or less and got a fairly wide range of definitions position have no bathroom formatting of curious thing you can have correct optimum position and still come up with an advertising campaign there's no effect at all we can- and you have very remarkable advertising which may not be rights and that's a position it is still summed up of the club oh I've had about ten great ideas in my life advertising ideas it isn't pennies more most people I met about 10 and I never heard a position it so the great thing today it's all arranged on the fact and a lot of positioning but the position he's finally decided after plants a philosophical discussion of it often the positioning statement for Thomas adversity all the commotions dead it's no idea have you any advice to offer young creative people or how to create good advertiser advice on this subject first thing I say is before ambitious don't fight when you get a job to do a story compete with the Immortals if you're going to do an automobile campaign trying to make it the greatest automobile campaign that any agency's ever done anything he won't always succeed reach for the stars is neo safe some plan in mind but she sent to fester the next thing is know your product study your product and really work on knowing about the product the more you know about the product the more like you want to study the precedence what other agencies have done what campaigns they've done for similar products know all about that well cut tie and use your unconscious most great ideas come from the unconscious and it's pretty hard if you're sitting in office unconscious so ideas in my life

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34 thoughts on “A conversation about advertising, with David Ogilvy

  1. What strikes me most about Sir David Ogilvy is his vast knowledge gained from many years of having a curious mind. And, of course, he was focused on results. As any good agency should be.

  2. I struggle to see why it is important to talk about the product in copy, but it it is okay to use eye patches for story telling.

  3. At 16:56 "Is that a toupee you're wearing or did your cat die?" Merci beaucoup Monsieur Javier. Johnnie de Bangkok www.pattayatoday.net

  4. Great video Im up to the last 3 minutes to finish watching but had to just comment how great it is to watch this. Thank you for uploading.

  5. Best of the advertising creativity. Share your questions and get answers from interested parties about advertising. Follow Advertising Genius for commenting and sharing ads and your opinion on them.
    Clheck: facebook.com617882024907812

  6. All hail the king. Seriously, I read Ovilvy on ADvertising in 1984 and decided on a career in advertising. Didn't work out like that although I did interview at O&M in Houston in 1988 right out of college.

    I still read his stuff. It applies even in the Web age.

  7. Hey TheStonerpreneur,

    No worries, the sound is really a bit blurry. Ogilvy started out in the US as a researcher for Dr Gallup in Princeton. Ogilvy actually started as a copywriter very late, at the age of 39!

    I just happen to be reading the interview book The Art of Writing Advertising (McGraw-Hill) at the moment :-).

  8. el 13 de octubre de 1991
    un niño llamado nick se tiro de un puente devido a problemas familiares
    si ya leiste esto deves copiar y pegar
    en otros 5 videos mas o si no
    nick vendra por toda tu familia
    haslo o moriran porfavor hasme caso
    yo lo lei y lo hise & si es verdad..la familia de un amigo murio hace una semana﻿
    por favor es to es estupido

  9. ø„¸¸„ø¤º°¨¸„ø¤º°¨ post to 3 other vids
    ¨°º¤ø„¸ Copy﻿ „ø¤º°¨ press F5 twice
    ¸„ø¤º°¨Paste “°º¤ø„¸ OK
    ¸„ø¤º°¨¸„ø¤º°¨¨°º look at ur backgroud

  10. I think the internet media will become a future "traditional advertising medium". These traditional media still has their own roles to play, but the internet brings something new to the table.

  11. You've got a mashed up brain! The future of advertising is individually created advertising messages for every single consumer, based on great ideas, deep data insights, consumer dialogue, understanding the individual conditions (channel preferences, spending patterns, needs etc etc etc) that apply to that consumer – young or old.

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