Confessions of an Advertising Man Book Review
David Ogilvy is known as the father of advertising and in his book, “Confessions of an Advertising man”, he lists out the principles he followed to take his agency, Ogilvy, Benson and Mather to the peak of advertising industry. In this book, he also offers advice to both the clients and the agencies on the dos and don'ts of the advertising industry.
The book is an excellent read which entails how an organization should work, what an employer, how objective he should be, how to maintain high motivation levels in his employees, how to lead by example and how honest you should be with your employees and clients without being naïve. For all this, he used real life examples. In short, the book illustrates many aspects of organizational behavior in simple language without the use of many jargons, which David Ogilvy himself hated.
About the Author: David Ogilvy was born in 1911 in England. He studied at Fettes College, Edinburgh and Christ Church, Oxford. He, however, did not graduate and instead, moved to Paris to become a chef at the Majestic Hotel. He then became a door-to-door salesman. After that, with the assistance of his brother, Ogilvy joined Mather and Crowther. He soon went to America and started his own agency with mather and crower. Later, crower left and it was just Ogilvy and mather. Gradually, Ogilvy and mather built a respectable clientele, that included Rolls Royce, Hathaway shirts, General Foods, Schweppes among others.
Ogilvy was also the head on the agency when it opened in India.
David Ogilvy died in 1999.
Summary: In the book, Ogilvy blatantly mentions why he wrote the book, particularly to attract new clients, promote shares and to make him better known in the world. The bluntness actually works, as it gives a no fuss approach to the entire book and makes the points and advices he mentions in the book even more crude and worthy of picking up. He doesn’t mince words and nowhere in the book is he found cajoling the readers to take up his ideas.
The book is an excellent read which entails how an organization should work, what an employer, how objective he should be, how to maintain high motivation levels in his employees, how to lead by example and how honest you should be with your employees and clients without being naïve. For all this, he used real life examples. In short, the book illustrates many aspects of organizational behavior in simple language without the use of many jargons, which David Ogilvy himself hated.
About the Author: David Ogilvy was born in 1911 in England. He studied at Fettes College, Edinburgh and Christ Church, Oxford. He, however, did not graduate and instead, moved to Paris to become a chef at the Majestic Hotel. He then became a door-to-door salesman. After that, with the assistance of his brother, Ogilvy joined Mather and Crowther. He soon went to America and started his own agency with mather and crower. Later, crower left and it was just Ogilvy and mather. Gradually, Ogilvy and mather built a respectable clientele, that included Rolls Royce, Hathaway shirts, General Foods, Schweppes among others.
Ogilvy was also the head on the agency when it opened in India.
David Ogilvy died in 1999.
Summary: In the book, Ogilvy blatantly mentions why he wrote the book, particularly to attract new clients, promote shares and to make him better known in the world. The bluntness actually works, as it gives a no fuss approach to the entire book and makes the points and advices he mentions in the book even more crude and worthy of picking up. He doesn’t mince words and nowhere in the book is he found cajoling the readers to take up his ideas.