The King of Madison Avenue: David Ogilvy and the Making of Modern Advertising

In 1965, I came to Madison Avenue as a young copywriter at Young & Rubicam. And those were the days of the Creative Revolution! While we writers and art directors at Y & R won a ton of creative awards--and we did--we were awed by the creative brilliance pouring forth from a non-Madison-Avenue shop, Doyle, Dane, Bernbach. Volkswagen "Think Small" ads! The Avis "We Try Harder" ads! Oh, if only we could work there! But how did I feel--back then--about Ogilvy & Mather and the Scottish bloke behind it? Truth be told, none of the agency creatives I hung out with or worked with directly at Y & R, had ever set foot inside Ogilvy & Mather. Mr. Ogilvy, with his red braces and ads for Rolls Royce and Hathaway shirts, was an "interesting" person. But he was not a Living God like Bill Bernbach. I would have walked barefoot through rusty razor blades for the chance to have coffee with Mr. Bernbach. And what if someone had invited me to join David Ogilvy for a sumptuous lunch at his expense? It's quite possible I would have taken a pass. The "hot kids" just weren't that entranced with David and his Hathaway eye patches. Holy cow, was I wrong! Kenneth Roman's action-packed book, "The King Of Madison Avenue," reveals the fascinating brilliance and mile-deep creative dimensions of David Ogilvy. I turned the pages relentlessly, making literally hundreds of marginal notes in my copy. I was bowled over by Ogilvy's unique, rich, peripatetic background--certainly he possessed a far more multi-layered wealth of experiences when compared to any other ad-business chieftain during the 20th Century. All of this is thoroughly described by author Roman with lively (sometimes juicy) anecdotes and solid reporting from hundreds of sources. About that background of Ogilvy's: First, as a "slave" sous-chef in one of the great autocratic restaurant kitchens of Paris. Then to England to sell the complex and costly Aga Cooker door-to-door to flinty eyed, wary cooks in some of England's finest homes, capping it all by becoming the company's top salesman by age 24. (Roman makes it very clear that years later Ogilvy took his instinctive understanding of "how to sell things" with him to Madison Avenue.) Ogilvy next moved to America and got a job working directly for pioneer consumer researcher, George Gallup (another skill he took with him to advertising.) He returned to England before the war and joined British Intelligence and began to learn the spy business (also handy for advertising.) After the war he came back to America, bought a farm in Amish Pennsylvania and took up the life of a gentleman farmer (the willingness to get your hands dirty is a quality not exactly found with many of today's ad agency CEOs.) Finally, after Ogilvy had added these occupational baubles to his resume--sous-chef, super-salesman, pioneer-researcher, spy, and farmer--he decided to open an ad agency boutique on Madison Avenue. The astounding skyrocketing ride to success the agency enjoyed is like

I loved this book. It is an affectionate look at the world of David Ogilvy-his work, his dreams and personal life. I read "Ogilivy on Advertising" when I was the young owner of a new business. I wanted to learn to be more effective at spending my limited advertising budget. It was very helpful to me then, and I never expected then that later in my life I be in a business that was all about persuading people to see something from my point of view. (Documentary Film Production) Maybe Ogilivy helped spark that interest? Kenneth Roman is a gifted writer. I had a hard time putting the book down. If you enjoy stories about the entrepreneurial spirt, building a business, effective leadership, and living a thoughtful and colorful life-you will enjoy this book. If you are expecting "Mad Men," forget it. This story has far more depth and class than that. How to Advertise: What Works, What Doesn't, and Why Ogilvy on Advertising

This is a fascinating book about a fascinating character.It is best for two kinds of people: 1)Those in business;2) everyone else. I have always known the name,but never knew the interesting story and character behind the name.Ken Roman tells that story in wonderful and entertaining fashion. JJC

I've just finished Kenneth Roman's THE KING OF MADISON AVENUE and found it informative, impressive and enjoyable to read. The King of Madison Avenue tells the story of the late David Ogilvy who became the most influential advertising figure in the U.S., and possibly the whole world. It's probably not too much to say, and Roman says it, that Ogilvy invented modern advertising. Born in England in 1911, the son of an upper-class Scottish family in "reduced circumstances", he enjoyed every educational opportunity customarily available to his class. But he did not always take fullest advantage of this because after two years of very mediocre academic performance he dropped out of Oxford. Improbably, he got a job as an apprentice chef at a famous Paris restaurant. Two years later he switched over to door-to-door selling in England of a very expensive kitchen stove, the Aga Cooker. At that stage in his life he was viewed as an attractive young man with flair but without direction in his life. But he was a distinct success at selling the Aga and he went on to write the company sales manual - generally regarded as brilliant. In 1935 he went to work in no particular capacity for a big British ad agency run by his brother. A few years later, in 1938, they sent him to the U.S. to study American advertising techniques - then thought to lead the world. He bounced around in the U.S., working first for George Gallup and learning a lot about consumer research. During World War II he worked for British intelligence and finally, in 1948 he opened his own ad agency on (of course) Madison Avenue in New York. Inadequately capitalized at $100,000 and inadequately staffed by persons new to the business (Ogilvy himself had never written an ad) it was amazing that it soon became a howling success. Famous ads that triggered sales - such as the Hataway shirt man with the eye patch, Commander Whitehead arriving from Britain to bring Schweppes tonic water to America, the Rolls Royce in whichyou can only hear the sound of the clock - poured out from this agency and from this man who proved to have enormous talent as a copywriter. Ogilvy's young agency became the third Largest in the U.S. and he became the much honored spokesman for a new level of advertising professionalism. Of course, as it turned out, Ogilvy himself was a fascinating, complex, extraordinary character. Roman gives lots of direct quotes, anecdotage and recollections of the man. The story moves rapidly because the outhor has every source. Kenneth Roman evidently knew Ogilvy quite well, worked for him for years, and was his successor as president and CEO at Ogilvy & Mather. Nobody closer to Ogilvy (who died ten years ago at age 79)than author Roman. To its credit, The King of Madison Avenue is as much a business book as it is a biography. But more than that, I found it a great read.

I devoured half the book at a sitting. Besides being well-written it tells me all the things I wanted to know that David's autobiography - Blood, Brains and Beer - didn't. That curiously impersonal book disappointed many people, because it dished absolutely no dirt whatsoever. For me, who only knew him in the twilight of his career, this book was full of interest. I always wanted to know about David and women. (The way he left his first wife was extraordinarily unkind - and crazy). I wanted to know what exactly he did in the secret service during the war - and indeed why he never fought. I wanted to know the exact relationship he had with his brilliant elder brother, Francis. I wanted to know whether he worried as much as I do. It's all there, and more. Claude Hopkins and John Caples may have made more impact on the nature of advertising and direct marketing. Albert Lasker made far more money. Many think Bill Bernbach's agency was more "creative". But nobody - to my mind - had such an influence on so many people This is despite the fact that many of his ideas were not at all original. The headline of his most famous advertisement was run thirty years earlier by another car manufacturer. Other people talked about the brand and its image before him. Others - going back to the 19th century - pointed out that advertising should be about selling, not showing off. And still yet others trumpeted the importance of research But nobody took these thoughts and theories, reflected on them, elaborated on them, explained them and propagated them so memorably, persuasively, and with such style. I worked with David Ogilvy for quite a few years towards the end of his career. This book brought him back to life for me. But it also tells a great deal about the development of advertising, how to build a successful business - and what bloody hard work it is. You cannot divorce the nature of a man from his achievements. Anyone interested in what made Ogilvy tick - his oddities (quite a few), his failures, his weaknesses, his strengths, his worries, his ambitions, his likes, his hates - will find them here.