Ogilvy Personality

David Ogilvy – The
Personality
Excerpted from ʻThe King Of Madison Avenueʼ
by Kenneth Roman

Ogilvy was proud of his Scottish heritage
and like the idea of being a Scot, but
seldom visited the country. When the
Chicago ofﬁce greeted him with bagpipers,
he protested: “Shut down that awful
sound. Thatʼs the reason I left Scotland.”

1
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At black-tie events, he might show up in a
kilt. “Perhaps a bit of self-advertisement. If
you canʼt advertise yourself, what hope do
you have of being able to advertise
anything else?”

2

Never a good student, Ogilvy critiqued the
education at one of his schools.
“The masters have to cram you full of
facts, so that you can pass those odious
examinations. This is like cramming corn
down the throat of a goose to enlarge his
liver. It may produce excellent pate de
foie gras, but it does the goose no
permanent good.”

3

When he came in late to a class at Oxford
and the professor stopped speaking, to call
attention to him, Ogilvy broke the silence:

“If you insult me again, I will not return to
this class.”

4

As a salesman of high-priced cooking
stoves, told the stove could not cook
pancakes, he poured batter in a frying pan
and cooked one side. When it came time to
turn the pancake over, he threw it high in the
air – a kitchen brigade of 18 chefs watching –
put the frying pan behind his back, caught it
ﬂat in the pan, and fell to the ﬂoor. And
saved the sale.

5

Meeting the novelist and lawyer Louis
Auchincloss in New York, having never
really worked in advertising, he asked,
“Tell me, are there any statutes or laws in
this country that require advertising to be
boring?”

6

When he spotted his client Helena
Rubinstein getting out of her car near a
puddle, he ran across the street to lay his
jacket down for her to walk on.

7

When the red-bearded Commander
Whitehead, the President of Schweppes
USA and the model in Schweppes
advertising, asked if one scene made him
look like a rabbi, Ogilvy agreed that could
be the case if people didnʼt read the
headline under the photo. “Who ever heard
of a rabbi named Commander Whitehead?”

8

After doing brilliant advertising for Rolls-
Royce, he resigned the account and gave
his reasons pressure from the dealers to
advertise like Buick, the companyʼs
“scandalous” service, and its tendency to
make “lemons.”

9

To win an assignment from Armstrong Cork,
Ogilvy wangled an invitation to speak from
the pulpit of an old Presbyterian church near
the Armstrong factory, knowing its Scottish
chairman would be in the congregation. He
sang the praises of “Scotland, my native
country,” (he was born in England) and won
the account.

10

An associate told Ogilvy he found his book
Confessions of an Advertising Man in a
Paris bookstore, in the erotica section, next
to The Story of O. “There is much to be
gained from a headline,” replied the author.

11

Marion Harper, the brilliant chairman of
Interpublic wooed Ogilvy and tried to buy
his agency, playing on their shared
background in research. Invited to watch
commercials while a camera focused on
his eyes, measuring whether the pupils
expanded or contracted, Ogilvy said “Itʼs
quite marvelous, but what do you do when
the eyes are closed?”

12

In 1982, the French magazine Expansion
named 30 men who contributed most to the
Industrial Revolution, along them Thomas
Edison, Albert Einstein, John Maynard Keyes,
Alfred Krupp, Lenin, Karl Marx, and, in seventh
place, David Ogilvy: “the Pope of modern
advertising.” Ogilvy reported this to his fellow
directors, concluding: “Will the College of
Cardinals please come to order?”

13

Discussing which of two commercials to
show first to a client, Ogilvy told the agency
team: When I was a boy, I always saved the
cherry for last. Then, one day, my sister
stole it. From then on, I always ate the
cherry first. Letʼs play the best commercial
first.” The client liked the first commercial.

14

Ogilvy routinely worked in the office until
7 pm, then packed his unfinished
business into two briefcases to finish at
home. “This weekend I went over 375
pieces of paper. The Duke of Wellington
never went home until he had finished all
the work on his desk.”

15

Talking about his (unsuccessful)
autobiography, Blood, Brains and Beer:
“When you write a book about advertising,
youʼre competing with midgets. When you
write an autobiography, youʼre competing
with giants.”

16

David George Patrick Ogilvy, the head of
Clan Ogilvy in Scotland, saw his
namesake walking down Madison Avenue
and accosted him: “I must introduce
myself. My name is David Ogilvy.” Quick
as a ﬂash came the reply: “Nice to meet
you. Whatʼs it like to be mistaken for me?

17

Coming to the end of a talk, the applause
struck Ogilvy as insufﬁcient. So he made
a slight upward gesture with his hands,
prompting the audience to rise to its feet
and express more enthusiasm. The press
reported “a standing ovation.”

18

After many years, Cunard Lines moved from
Ogilvyʼs agency to Ted Bates, run by his
brother-in-law Rosser Reeves. When he saw
proofs of the Bates campaign, almost
identical to his except for the headline, he
told Reevesʼ secretary they arrived just in
time, that he was editing his new book and
adding a chapter on plagiarism.

19

When Ogilvy & Mather had grown and
acquired other agencies under different
names, Ogilvy reacted to a proposal to
change the name of the parent company.
“Itʼs a terrible mistake to change a
companyʼs name. I will ﬁght it with every
ounce of my breath. But if you do change it,
you donʼt need Mather.”

20

Asked to consider playing the lead in a
Broadway play, Ogilvy explained, “I turned
it down. The play failed.”

21

Many visitors came to his grand chateau in
France, which included an anachronistic
swimming pool. “Is this where you practice
walking on water?” asked an irreverent
colleague. A short beat, “I donʼt practice.”

22

Following a hostile takeover of his agency, Ogilvy
was in the audience when the chairman of the
acquiring company was asked what was next after
buying J. Walter Thompson and Ogilvy & Mather.
He had completed his goals, was the answer, and
planned no further acquisitions. From the middle
of the audience came a stage-whispered comment
from the founder: “Just like bloody Hitler after
Czechoslovakia.”

23

Longevity fascinated Ogilvy, who railed
about “the conspiracy against old men.”
He collected stories of people who were
productive in the 80s and 90s, such as
Konrad Adenauer. “He was 87 when he
gave up the job as boss of Germany. Put
that in your pipe and smoke it.”

24

Before his memorial service, O&M directors gathered for
lunch and traded “David” stories. Hans Lange, who ran
the agency in Germany, had assumed that position as a
young man. Ogilvy agreed to spend a few days a week in
Frankfurt to guide the younger man, and was given an
ofﬁce next to Lange. Lange noted cigars were
disappearing from the box behind his desk and left a
note in the box: “David, if you want a cigar let me know
and Iʼll get you some.” The next day, the note was gone,
a new one in its place: “Hans, it wasnʼt me.”

25

ank you

Excerpted from ʻThe King Of Madison Avenueʼ
by Kenneth Roman

Ogilvy Personality

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