What I learned from reading The King of Madison Avenue: David Ogilvy and the Making of Modern Advertising by Kenneth Roman.
He was 52 and famous.
I was 33 and a junior account executive.
Early on, he wrote a letter to one of my clients.
After listing eight reasons why some ads prepared by their 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.
So began my David file.
Almost everyone who worked at the agency kept one.
Almost everyone who brushed up against the man has a David story.
Over my next 26 years, there were more such lessons, countless meetings with him around the world, and many more memos and letters.
Eventually, when I became his third successor as chairman, I no longer reported to him technically, but he was always a formidable presence.
We all thought of the agency as his company.
While Ogilvy disclosed much about his life in three books and several hundred interviews, what he could not do is assess his own legacy and its relevance today.
This biography, the first, aims to provide that perspective and impart a sense of his quotable brilliance.
Ogilvy's insights go beyond advertising to leadership and apply to almost any professional organization.
I also will try to bring alive his idiosyncratic and vivid personality.
World War Two had been over for only three years when 39 year old David Ogilvy, an english immigrant with almost no experience in advertising, opened up shop in 1948.
Although his offices were on Madison Avenue, the rulers of the realm at that time had no reason to take notice of him.
Within a few years, Ogilvy was counted as one of them.
That was an excerpt from the book that I'm going to talk to you about today, which is the king of Madison Avenue, David Ogilvy, and the making of modern advertising by Kenneth Roman.