Ogilvy on Advertising

by David Ogilvy
published by Vintage Books, 1983

ESC Software Marketing Book Club's June, 2009 selection.

Time Magazine called David Ogilvy the most sought-after wizard in the advertising business.

This book teaches us how to write advertising copy.

While Ogilvy wrote ads for direct-mail and magazines, we in the software development industry write sales copy for our web sites, blogs, PAD files, newsletters, and upgrade solicitations.

"This is not a book for readers who think they already know all there is to be known about advertising," Ogilvy tells us. "It is for young hopefuls - and veterans who are still in search of ways to improve their batting average at the cash register."

Ogilvy started in the advertising business in 1949. In 1963, he started Ogilvy & Mather, and took it from a specialty shop to one of the four largest ad agencies in the world. At the time he wrote this book, the company had 140 offices in 40 countries.

Ogilvy believes that advertising is timeless, and that most trends need to be ignored.

He explains, "Consumers still buy products whose advertising promises them value for money, beauty, nutrition, relief from suffering, social status and so on."

Ogilvy would undoubtedly be impressed by the Internet, in the same way that he was impressed by the way that television revolutionized the advertising industry.

But the age-old principles that he describes in this book are much more useful than the ideas that you'll find in the "Bill and Ted's Excellent Advertising Techniques" -type books available today.