The Art of Advertising

“Many people – and I think I am one of them – are more productive when they’ve had a little to drink. I find if I drink two or three brandies, I’m far better able to write.”
– David Ogilvy

education for advertising

"Eighty-seven American universities offer undergraduate courses in advertising, and some even give degrees in it. With a few conspicuous exceptions, the teachers lack the practical experience to be relevant. All of them are handicapped by the poor quality of the textbooks, and very few do research of their own. Most of their graduates get jobs with small agencies, the big agencies preferring to recruit people who have furnished their minds by studying history, languages, economics and so forth... schools of business administration alumni are more remarkable for stodginess and arrogance than imagination."
- David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising, p.39

gentlemen with brains

Wanted by 

Ogilvy & Mather International

Trumpeter 

Swans

In my experience, there are five kinds of Creative Director:

1. Sound on strategy, dull on execution.

2. Good managers who don't make waves ... and don't produce brilliant campaigns either.

3. Duds.

4. The genius who is a lousy leader.

5. TRUMPETER SWANS who combine personal genius with inspiring leadership.

We have an opening for one of these rare birds on one of our offices overseas.

Write in inviolable secrecy to me,

David Ogilvy, Touffou, 86300 Bonnes,

France.

advertising truism

"We don't have any money, so now we have to think."
- Unattributed

Ogilvy on Advertising

Guinness Guide to Oysters

A brief history of the man who created this ad here.