Ogilvy on Advertising

Rating:
Summary: an oldie, but a goodie
Review: I was afraid that it might be a bit outdated, and while some of the statistics are no longer relevant, it proved that a good book with classic ideas can never go out of style.

Rating:
Summary: Helpful, useful, wonderful!
Review: I'm writing my thesis (to graduate at Cattolica University, Milan)on this subject: "Professional advertising: from american theory and practice to a possible use in Europe." I found in the book great ideas and helpful suggestions. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find a more specific book on my subject. Please, help me in my research! Send me an e-mail at [e-mail]. Thank you, I'll appreciate it... much!

Rating:
Summary: Common sense is always timeless
Review: I've owned the same doggeared, underlined, highlighted and notated copy of Ogilvy on Advertising for 15 years and it never ceases to amaze me that while I continue to buy and read advertising and marketing books at a steady clip I keep coming back to the most pleasurable and sensible book on the subject I've ever read.

I could break the book down and give my opinion on this or that but the book is such a delightful read you should just dive in.

Granted, some may say that the book is out of date but I counter that (oops, with my opinion) Ogilvy understood people and tapped into the fact that regardless of the passage of time and all of our new mellinnium brilliance, we're all basically the same under the surface and basically the same as people 100 years ago.

Enjoy it.

Rating:
Summary: The information in this book is priceless
Review: If you're in the profession of advertising, and this book isn't on your bookshelf, dog-eared, stained and well-worn, you've been ripping off your clients.

The entire premise of Ogilvy on Advertising boils down to one simple statement (coined by Claude Hopkins nearly 80 years ago in his book Scientific Advertising): "Advertising is salesmanship."

Sadly, the advertising world has drifted from that solid mooring. And now those who profess it are considered anachronistic at best. And kooky at worst.

Ogilvy, a staunch admirer of Hopkins, firmly embraced that tenet -- and it propelled him and his agency (Ogilvy and Mather) to the Mount Olympus of the advertising world. Most importantly, it made his clients rich beyond the dreams of avarice.

Ogilvy's writing is captivating. His work, legendary. His ideas, timeless. The information in this book is easily work 10 times the cover price.

I've been in the profession of advertising for nearly 15 years. I'm also an adjunct professor at a nearby university. I wholeheartedly recommend Ogilvy On Advertising to my students. I firmly embrace its principles in my profession.

And I, without hesitation, urge you to read it as well.

Rating:
Summary: i've read it 4 times and still readin 'it
Review: If your in the advertising field, it is imperative to grab a copy. This book is the only book that tells you about the real advertising industry. It's fun, informative, creative, provocative and full of surprises. Ogilvy isn't only a genius but a master of his craft.

Rating:
Summary: an amazing man! so missed!
Review: It has often been said David Ogilvy was a genius in his own mind. Well, he was in many others as well. He built Ogilvy and Mather into the giant it is with simple beliefs. He wrote this Admans Guide to Advertising, but he went past it, umbuing it with his whit and charm. Instead of a dry how-to-book on advertising read only by people in the industy, he created a book anyone could enjoy. His writing is strong, sincere and straight from the heart. Why the book has earned millions and will continue to do so.

A man well missed, but his work lives on.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant!
Review: It is the bible for any one who wants to pursue the advertising way of life.

Rating:
Summary: Easily one of the best books ever written on advertising!
Review: My gosh! What a book! This is, without a doubt, one of the best books ever written on advertising. And certainly the most entertaining.

You'd have to be a brain-dead advertising or marketing moron not to learn a thing or two from Ogilvy's abundant war stories.

Ogilvy's wit abounds. A few of his gems:

"There have always been noisy lunatics on the fringes of the advertising business. Their stock-in-trade includes ethnic humor, eccentric art direction, contempt for research and their self-proclaimed genius. They are seldom found out, because they gravitate to the kind of clients who, bamboozled by their rhetoric, do not hold them responsible for sales results..... I comfort myself with the reflection that I have sold more merchandise than all of them put together."

"In saying this, I run the risk of being denounced by idiots who hold that any advertising technique which has been in use for more than two years is ipso facto obsolete. They excoriate slice-of-life commercials, demonstrations and talking heads, turning a blind eye to the fact that those techniques still make the cash register ring."

"I sometimes wonder if there is a tacit conspiracy among clients, media and agencies to avoid putting advertising to such acid tests. Everyone involved has a vested interest in prolonging the myth that all advertising increases sales to some degree. It doesn't."

"Do I practice what I preach? Not always. I have created my share of fancy campaigns, but if you ask which of my advertisements has been the most successful, I will answer without hesitation that it was the first ad I wrote for industrial development in Puerto Rico. It won no awards for 'creativity', but it persuaded scores of manufacturers to start factories in that poverty-stricken island. Sad to say, an agency which produced nothing but this kind of down-to-earth advertising would never win a reputation for 'creativity', and would wither on the vine."

"On an airplane not long ago, I overheard the following conversation:

'What business are you in?'
'Engineer. You?'
'I'm an account executive in ad agency.'
'You write the ads?'
'No, copywriters do that.'
'That must be a fun job.'
'It's not easy. We do a lot of research.'
'You do the research?'
'No, we have research people for that.'
'Do you bring in the new clients?'
'That's not my job.'
'Forgive me, but what is your job?'
'Marketing.'
"You do the marketing for the clients?'
'No, they do it themselves.'
'Are you in management?'
'No, but I soon will be.'"

That's not all! There are reprints of many of David Ogilvy's classic print ads. Including some that aren't Ogilvy's (for example, Volkswagen "Think Small".) Ogilvy's Rolls Royce ad, which sold out Rolls Royce North American inventory, is also reproduced. Along with Ogilvy's print ads for Schweppes, Hathaway Shirts and Puerto Rico.

A gold mine of ideas.

As David Ogilvy writes at the end of the book's overture: "If you think this is a lousy book, you should have seen it before my partner Joel Raphaelson did his best to de-louse it. Bless you, Joel."

And bless you, David Ogilvy!

Rating:
Summary: If there's only 1 book on advertising to read, this is it.
Review: No one who has anything to do with advertising should have anything to do with advertising before reading this book at least 7 times; most of all agency people. Mandatory reading sessions every 6 months should be a be a job requirement for every agency employee. Why? So they don't forget that advertising is not an artform...it is sales...just as Ogilvy says/quotes...if it doesn't sell it's not creative (this doesn't mean that advertising that does sell shouldn't be creative). The single most amazing fact of this book is its flow which provides for totally effortless reading. The wealth of information paird with the entertaining autobiographical and documentary elements and examples creates one of the most solid & comprehensive books on the topic. It is equally suitable reading material for ad-executives, students and laymen (and women).First-class writing in a first-class way.

Rating:
Summary: maybe the only book you should read in advertising
Review: rules still exists, examples still remembered, author still the best.