The King of Madison Avenue: David Ogilvy and the Making of Modern Advertising [ペーパーバック]

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.

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 likely to keep you up reading `til 3AM. (It did me.)

In the closing pages we are treated to a frightening, scathing, stomach-turning story of how--once a company has sold its stock to the public--the founder can suddenly find his life's most important accomplishment ruthlessly ripped away from him. Roman's insider's-view writing (he was there as CEO at the time) rivals "Barbarians At The Gate" at its hairiest. I will read and re-read those particular pages many times for the lessons they contain.

What a book! And what a graphic picture of David Ogilvy, this ego-driven, complicated, wildly creative man!

I will say that Roman has convincingly persuaded me that I was just one of those snot-nosed creative kids back in the 60s--award-happy renegades who didn't have the slightest idea where the REAL genius of Madison Avenue lived.

If I could turn the clock back 40 years and someone offered me that opportunity to lunch with David Ogilvy, I would walk barefoot through rusty razor blades, broken glass, red-hot embers, and sulfuric acid just to sit down for an hour and listen to him.

If you want to read lessons that can still--without question--inspire success today, I have three words for you:

Buy this book.

With the success of AMC's "Mad Men" television series, this book was probably destined to happen. Because in many ways, David Ogilvy, the subject of this bio, was the original "Mad Man." In fact, his life story could easily become the basis of a TV series.

That Ogilvy ended up being a legendary figure in advertising is all the more compelling because of his background prior to entering advertising.

In 1931, all of 20 years old and fresh out of Oxford, Ogilvy went to work in the kitchen of the Hotel Majestic in Paris, where he became a sous chef. From there he worked (in no particular order) as a door-to-door salesman of stoves, a researcher for George Gallup, an Amish-country farmer and a spy for the Brits during World War II.

Oglivy eventually landed in New York where, withith the backing of British ad agencies S.H. Benson and Mather & Crowther, he started Ogilvy, Benson & Mather.

A master salesman and asute believer in direct advertising and marketing principles, Oglivy overcame early struggles to land clients and go on to produce some of the most memorable ad campaigns in history for Hathaway shirts, Rolls Royce and Schweppes, among others.

As detailed in the book, Oglivy spent hours meticulously researching his clients and their products, searching for an idea that could be used to sell the product. Ogilvy, who also was a copywriter, would not only hit upon an idea but then brilliantly craft advertising built on those ideas.

But Ogilvy's history as an ad man is only part of the story. Ogilvy also had a rich personal life, including multiple marriages, culminating with his purchasing and living in a castle in France in his last years. As the book chronicles, Oglivy was a hopeless spendthrift, a fact which eventually led to his having to sell his beloved ad agency, Oglivy & Mather, in 1989.

But along the way, Oglivy had a great ride and, while his influence at his own agency may have long ago waned, he still is considered one of the masters to be studied by many of the top copywriters. And for the most part, author Kenneth Roman does a great job of chronicling Oglivy's rich and diverse life, right down to his last years as a curmudgeon who was often bitter about having to sell his agency.

Although the book sometimes drags, its still a great read, particularly for those with a love for advertising, marketing and copywriting. Get it, and discover the story of the original "Mad Man."