You sell or else

When I think of the legends of our business, I immediately think of David Ogilvy.   

He was responsible for much of the iconic ad copy and "characters" we all reference as the pinnacle of advertising in the 50’s and 60’s.  (I love Gene’s story about an impromptu conversation he had with Ogilvy in the company’s cafeteria.)

His book, Ogilvy on Advertising is still one of the best.  If you haven’t read it, you should.  If you have, you should read it again.

Thanks to the exhaustive archives of YouTube, here’s a little glimpse into how Ogilvy viewed advertising.  He didn’t have much respect for creativity just to be creative.  He believed that the job of advertising (and I would guess he’d extend that to all marketing efforts) was to sell something.

Hat tip to Efraín Mendicuti for sharing this on his excellent blog, The daily stuff and the not so.  Efraín makes the point that if as you listen to Ogilvy you substitute interactive marketing for direct response, you can see what Ogilvy would think about the digital world we are cutting our teeth on today.