Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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."

This book is a doughnut. There is a hole in the middle.

David Ogilvy arrived in the US from Britain after WWII and built one of the world's largest and most respected advertising agencies. He changed the rules of the game, created a number of very famous advertisements and left behind a large number of quotable Ogilvyisms. It's a great story, but most of that story is not in this book.

The King of Madison Avenue is 250 pages long. The first 70 pages deal with Ogilvy's life prior to founding O&M. Then, by page 154, it's 1973, Ogilvy is 62 years old and he's now chairman and out of front line management. For those who have read either or both of Ogilvy's two books on advertising, Confessions of an Advertising Man and Ogilvy on Advertising, much of this part of the book is familiar.

Then follows 100 pages of snippets about Ogilvy, not in chronological order, and largely relating to his later years.

Any biography of David Ogilvy must, to a large extent, also be a history of Ogilvy & Mather because the two stories are intertwined. We all want to read about Ogilvy's role in the rise of Ogilvy & Mather.

Ogilvy used to boast that he had won 29 major accounts, a record unmatched in his industry. How did a British Immigrant, with no connections in the US, do that? Surely he told war stories about how he obtained introductions to the leaders of America's largest corporations and what he said and did at the pitches to win the business? This is the stuff of legend. None of it is in this book.

Kenneth Roman worked with David Ogilvy, but not during the glory years when Ogilvy was racing to the top of his profession. He did not know David Ogilvy when he was a lion in his prime; he knew him when he was a charming old buffer, still working but not in front line management, and, predominantly, this is the Ogilvy we see in the book.

It is understandable that the author did not have first hand knowledge of this era, but he would have had access to many people who lived through those times. It is therefore difficult to understand why he did not devote more effort to documenting Ogilvy's ascension during this period. That is the David Ogilvy story and it remains largely untold.

The King of Madison Avenue is, however, the only biography (apart from Ogilvy's autobiography) that has been written about this fascinating man - and it will have to do until a better one comes along.

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'd 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

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.

Ken Roman is an extraordinarily focused man. Like all of us, he fell under David Ogilvy's spell, yet forged his own path through the forest, moved Ogilvy & Mather forward, and created new ways of thinking about the agency and its business. In this exhaustively researched life, Ken has captured David Ogilvy's amazing story that extends from the home counties of England to success on Madison Avenue and beyond. He has explored the literature, scoured original documents, and painted a rich picture of the David Ogilvy we love, cherish, and revere, and which many people, frankly, don't know or don't understand. But the Ogilvy portrait painted isn't totally rich and respectful. We discover a self-focused, self-absorbed genius who lived by the hour and the day, and who was totally focused on his own business and his own livelihood. Ken describes a man who never managed, never moderated, and never controlled his own behavior, but who unfailingly said, acted, and did whatever he felt like doing, wherever he was, and whatever he was doing at the time. Those of us who knew David Ogilvy know that this is true. And Ken has tapped into that reality. But Ken never went beyond the chapter and verse of David's life. He never attempted to justify his behavior. He never excused him. In fact, no judgments at all are made in Ken's book. Perhaps that wasn't his objective. Perhaps it was a bridge too far. Nevertheless, he has produced a landmark, literary work. For the first time, a definitive David Ogilvy story has been told, which readers around the globe can embrace, enjoy and celebrate, and tell their friends about - all of which Ken deserves. But make no mistake. David Ogilvy was an outlier. Out there somewhere is the truth about the genius of this man.

When Author Kenneth Roman was a 33-year-old account executive at what was to become the storied Ogilvy & Mather ad agency, David Ogilvy (the king) wrote a letter to one of Roman's clients. "After listing eight reasons why some ads prepared by the company's design department would not be effective, he delivered his ultimate argument: `The only thing that can be said in favor of the layouts is that they are `different.' You could make a cow look different by removing the udder. But that cow would not produce results.'"

That word picture was classic Ogilvy. Advertising must produce results--they must sell products. His sales background (door-to-door stove sales in England) fueled his impeccable copyrighting talent. His distinctive ideas on ad design and copy (including his 39 rules of advertising) earned him a spot in the Advertising Hall of Fame. He was mentored in excellence by a French chef and this book is a feast of ad wisdom, insight and a back-to-ad-basics for new and experienced communicators. His body of work was memorable: Hathaway shirts (the black eye patch man), Maxwell House Coffee (good to the last drop), and the most famous auto ad of all time ("At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock.").

I often skip boring chapters. Not this book. I read every page. I underlined insights and ideas on more than 100 pages. This inside-advertising love letter was good to the last page. More than 35 years ago, having read Ogilvy's 1963 best-seller (one million copies), Confessions of an Advertising Man, I was immediately hooked on advertising. Author Kenneth Roman, who rose to chairman and CEO of Ogilvy & Mather, understands leadership. His page-turning anecdotes in this book, peppered with Ogilvyisms and astute management commentary (how you build an organization), put this on my "must-read-again" list.

Start by reading "The True Church," Roman's chapter on creating corporate culture (the color red was the king at Ogilvy & Mather). Then you'll find the biography chapters more interesting. Ogilvy, Scottish kilt and all, messed up his personal life frequently (three marriages), but he was big on integrity. Go figure. Today there are 359 offices in 100 countries and the Ogilvy & Mather corporate logo is Ogilvy's signature.

David Ogilvy's OGILVY ON ADVERTISING is one of my favorite
books on the subject . . . in fact, for several years, I used it
as the text for the advertising course that I taught.

So when I saw there was a biography written about him,
THE KING OF MADISON AVENUE by Kenneth Roman, I
jumped at the opportunity to read more about the man many
consider as one of the fathers of modern advertising.

He was quite a character who not only built Ogilvy & Mather into
a global enterprise, but who also worked undercover as
a British agent in Washington and spent time as a farmer
in the Amish country . . . this entertaining tale of his
life gave me a real feel for the man who had some strong
opinions about the profession--including this one:

* If you spend your advertising budget entertaining the consumer, you
are a bloody fool. Housewives don't buy a new detergent because the
manufacturer told a joke on television last night. They buy it because
it promised a benefit. If I could persuade the lunatics to give up their
pursuit of awards, I would die happy.

I also liked reading about Ogilvy's life outside of work . . . in his
latter years, he moved to France where he invited hundreds
of people to come see him:

* Dozens took him up on it. People would invite themselves for tea
and be coaxed to stay the night. One young couple asked if they
could come for a night and stayed for six. He put some houseguests
to work improving his dry moat--a dirty job--confiding that guests
seldom outstayed their welcome if put to work.

Ordinarily, I don't pay too much attention to a book's
documentation. . . yet that said, Roman is to be commended
on his thorough job of research . . . there are some 17 pages
of Source Notes; however, what most caught my attention was
the Afterword devoted to "(More) Unpublished David Ogilvy" . . . my
favorite was this Memo he wrote his Board of Directors:

* During the Kaiser's war, whenever one of Churchill's colleagues in
the Cabinet got mad at him, he would write to them in this vein:

"We are on the stage of history. Let us keep our anger for the
common foe."

With a little modification, we should sometimes say this to each other.

Even if you're not a fan of biographies or advertising, give this
one a chance . . . you'll find it fascinating.

I am almost finished with "The King of Madison Avenue". I am so grateful that I picked it out to read because I've spent my life in advertising and the insights were amazing!! Anyone would enjoy this, but especially if you have been in advertising or marketing!! What a life!